


Culture Shock

by Shyameimaru



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Blood, Blood and Injury, Bonding, Cultural Differences, Enemies to Friends, F/M, Japanese Oc, Light Angst, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, OC, Threats of Violence, invader zim - Freeform, reference to abuse, self indulgent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2020-10-29 23:24:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 32,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20804708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shyameimaru/pseuds/Shyameimaru
Summary: With no friends, an absent mother and a house by itself on a mountain, Nesumi is a lonely middle-schooler with nobody that she can talk to. But what would happen if a UFO crashed in the woods nearby? Would rescuing the slightly violent alien from an impending snowstorm be a good idea? Too kind-hearted to leave an injured creature by itself, the awe-stricken girl brings the unconscious alien home. God only knows what will ensue when he finally wakes up.Formerly Mean and Green





	1. A Very Ordinary Night

**Author's Note:**

> I dunno, this is a self-indulgent thing. I wanted to work with my setting descriptions n stuff so maybe it'll work out? This is my second fanfic ever, so feedback and criticism are always welcome!
> 
> Thanks for checking it out!

On a brisk November night with the sky striped generously by dark, dense clouds. Gentle winds delicately brush the bare branches of dampened trees blanketing a stout mountain. The mountain espritily protects the humble, aged village of Kiso, resting harmoniously at the base. A Japanese town known for its tranquility with nature and rich cultural history. Silent and dark, the town streets stand currently empty. The last few house lights cut off for the night since Kiso’s residents were heading to sleep. However, at the end of a worn asphalt road winding halfway up the mountain through deep woods, lies a house all by itself. Surrounded by the woods on all sides but the front, this house faces a tall, steep hill that overlooks the rest of town. One open window on the second floor flickers softly with the familiar flashing glow of a television screen.

A young, long-haired girl sits cross-legged on the floor of her darkened bedroom; leaning back against the wall under her window while staring absentmindedly at the news. Warnings of an approaching blizzard spout from the box-screened T.V. but her focus is stuck to her smartphone laying on the round tatami table nearby. She sits tired in her middle-school sailor uniform, slightly disheveled from staying up so late. A cold gust of wind swept through, snapping the child out of her sleepy trance. With a shiver she looked to the window, begrudgingly deciding to shut it for the night. The small-statured girl lazily pushed herself up using the wall as support and while still leaning on it, turned to face the breezy opening. Just as her fingers wearily gripped the pane her phone lit up with a buzz. She jumped and looked towards the sound before dashing for it, dropping on her knees with a heavy ‘thud’. The girl held the phone just a couple inches from her face, gripping it securely in both hands. Artificial light softly illuminating her exhausted features as she reads a text from her mom. 

“Nesumi. The business trip got extended another 5 days on account of the storm. I’ll call you tomorrow, be sure to leave the taps running during the blizzard. - 22:56” 

Tired, Nesumi stared emptily at the small screen. Her shoulders slumped as the emotionless face she’d held gently gave in to distress. Burning tears formed in her previously dry, sleepy eyes. Suddenly her chest felt tight as she did everything in her emotional power not to release a bitter sob. In a sudden fit of anger the distraught child throws her phone at the wall next to the window she had previously been sitting under and allows her eyelids to fall closed, dropping hot tears. Another gust of wind flits through the room, wafting her hair to hit her face, some strands annoyingly sticking from the few tears that caressed her cheeks. A twisted pain was engulfing her stomach from the knowledge that she’d be alone an additional five days on top of the already standing week. She needed someone to talk to, to tell someone what’s happened. Someone who she could trust and someone who could do something about it. But life isn’t fair, and Nesumi knows this. Using her sleeve she wiped the tears away, pulled the hair from her face and defeatedly slogged to her phone. Loosely gripping the device in her hand she released a shaky sigh. Outside, snow was finally fluttering down. Looking into the night sky Nesumi took a deep breath and gripped the window pane once again, slamming it closed this time. Staying angry for another five days would drive her insane; and with the blizzard threatening to snow her in she didn’t have any outlet for all this stress. So, the best thing for now would be to try to find a way to calm down and ohmygodwhatthehell is that a UFO?!

Nesumi was slapped from her thoughts as a flaming hunk of metal the size of a small car flew past her window and into the woods behind the house. All the blood in her veins suddenly ran cold with the realization she just saw something extremely weird and definitely dangerous. Incredulous, the girl threw open the window once again and leaned out to try and see where the thing went, holding tightly to the sill. Cold wind bit her face while heavy snowflakes peppered her skin. Squinting to see through the thick sleet she could make out what was an obvious glow far out into the woods, past where she was generally allowed to venture. A handful of thoughts raced through her head in that moment but only one was coherent; “What was that?” Nesumi stared out at the glowing site with increasing worry. There was something out there, it wasn't an illusion. Was there something a person should do in this situation? The police station is closed, no authorities would answer her phone calls. And that glow. What could that be, fire? No, it was too strange a color to be any fire. She can’t take to the streets screaming about a… Whatever that was, she’s already considered weird by her peers; and if this thing happened to not be dangerous at all and she overreacted by waking the whole town then her mother would...

Her Mom. The one person she can count on wouldn’t even answer her calls if she tried. A mother who is regularly too busy for her only child. Not a single person in this town treated her like a human, either. What would be the harm in going out there alone? To take a quick peek at the strange flaming object that crashed into a mountain. Nothing exciting like this ever happened. Nobody would find out she left her house, and if they did they certainly wouldn’t care. The falling snow is too thick for anyone in town to see such a faint glow all the way up here and no one was scheduled to check in on her. The responsible thing to do would be to go and make sure there isn’t a fire spreading towards her home. Sure, the blizzard would probably stop any fires, but she really needed this distraction before she had a breakdown. Everyone already assumed the poor girl was lacking in brain cells on account of how clumsy she is, so it wouldn't be out of character. Nesumi felt her thoughts clear. A sudden burst of determination fueled by curiosity and the realization that there was truly nothing to stop her caused Nesumi to snap into action. She was going to find that thing if it killed her. 

Throwing open the door to her room she raced down the wooden stairs with white socks dawning her feet. She almost slipped from hectically rounding the corner into her darkened living room, but frantically grabbed the doorframe in time to save herself from what is a pretty commonplace accident for her. Quickly recollecting herself she flies back into action. Everything in the house was quiet except for the thumps of her feet as she ran to the front door coat rack. There, she threw on a heavy green jacket that was just a bit big for her small frame and haphazardly slipped on her white school shoes. Finally stepping outside, the wind caught her by surprise and caused her hair to fly every which way. Fat snowflakes pelted her bare legs and turned to droplets. Phone still in hand Nesumi turned on the flashlight feature and cautiously ventured into the woods, snow buildup on the ground cushioning her footfalls with satisfying crunches. 

The cold air froze her breath, requiring her to squint to see the strange greenish-bluish glow reflecting off the falling snow flurry in the sky. Luckily, the snow buildup on the ground made it easier for the flashlight to illuminate her surroundings. It was a little creepy, Nesumi had to admit that the woods weren’t her favorite place. At 6 years old she had accidentally watched a horror movie about a monster in the woods and it caused her nightmares for 3 months after. It didn’t help that there were local legends of Youkai and Oni living inside the mountain. There’s not a lot to do up here, though. None of the kids at school wanted to play with her, no townspeople cared enough to come and visit since Nesumis’ mother was too engrossed in her work to have ever socialized with any neighbors. The TV and her few mega-monster movies were the extent of her entertainment in that old house. But the woods served a different purpose to the secluded girl. While she thought they were creepy, they were still her best source of exhilaration. She had gotten lost on the mountain once and found an old shrine etched into a cliff-face. Nesumi had found her way back before her mother got home, but the bruises and dirt gave away her adventure. Mother tore into her that day. Nesumi shivered, maybe from the memory of her angry Mom, maybe from the cold that was engulfing her body. She looked up at the sky to determine how much farther she was supposed to go. The glow was right over her now. It was just a few meters away. 

Nesumi slowed to a stop. She looked around nervously just in case something else had come to investigate. The falling snow was too thick for her to see through efficiently. She glanced at the ground behind her. Snow was already beginning to cover her tracks. If she wanted to make it home safely then she would have to pick up the pace. After dragging her feet into the snow, making a line pointing the correct way to walk back home she quickened her pace. However, fear backhanded her as she lost her footing and slipped down into a shallow snow-covered trench. She kept her eyes closed and carefully moved each of her limbs to ensure that none were broken. One time she had broken her arm from falling out of a tree and fainted upon site of the unnatural angle her wrist was in. Not risking fainting in a snowstorm, she only opened her eyes once she determined that all her bones were fine. Her phone dropped face-up and rode the snow down deeper into what she had fallen into and stopped at the source; it made her stomach do a flip. 

The trench was newly made. On the sides of the trench were collapsed trees freshly broken from their stumps. There was no fire to be seen. Instead the light that Nesumi saw was being emitted by the very thing that made this trench, the thing that flew past her house. A… spaceship? How had it not made a sound with all this damage? Mangled and sparking with exposed wires coming out from different places was the strange object from before. She currently faced the back of it, looking at some strange triangular symbol. There were also what could be rockets which emitted smoke and heat. It looked foreign. There were no hard angles. It was so round and smooth looking, save for the dents from the apparent rough landing. The phone had slid down to the side of the pod. Nesumi shuffled to her feet, ignoring the scraps she received from her fall. Did she just find a UFO? It was so small, purple and pinkish and honestly, looked like garbage. But that’s probably just because of how broken it was. 

She turned and looked around. No other living things seemed to be around. Feeling certain that she was alone the girl cautiously walked towards the ship at an angle that would allow her to quickly turn and sprint away if necessary. She noticed there was glass on the front. Some kind of windshield to protect something inside, something that would want to see out. Nesumi held her breath. She couldn’t quite see into the machine at her current angle, but she could make out smoke inside. If there was a windshield then someone was likely inside that thing, piloting it. She felt fear flow through her limbs causing her to tremble at the thought of encountering something or someone all by herself. There was a long branch nearby, thick enough to be an improv swinging stick. She picked it up and gripped it tightly using both hands. It was a little heavy from the moisture it soaked up from the snow, but manageable. If there was someone in that thing then she may need to help them, but also didn’t want to get herself killed in case they happened to be unfriendly. Sure, a stick probably wouldn’t put up a very good fight if the person in there was sporting weapons of the same technological caliber as the ship. But she sure wasn’t going to go down without trying her best. 

While inching closer to the strange pod she jumped back at the abrupt sight of the windshield disappearing into the top of the ship. Smoke spilled out from the inside of the pod and pooled around the base. Nesumi was close enough for the smoke to engulf her shoes. She was frozen, unsure if moving any closer would be a good idea. Then, there was a cough. Something was definitely there, choking on the thick smoke. Inside that weird broken pod there was a living creature and it was awake. Before she could sift through sensible thoughts to dissuade herself from staying any longer a black gloved hand extended from inside and gripped the edge of the pod. Her breath caught in her throat and knees locked. A figure silhouetted by fog climbs out from the cockpit. All doubt of the creature being human was swept away by the sight of four sleek metal legs extending to the ground, one piercing her smartphone effortlessly. Large red oval eyes glare down at the lone child with a malicious and cold air. There’s nobody to help her, not a person who would hear her scream. Those strange ominous eyes squint as one of the metallic legs is drawn up above her, aimed towards her head in a threatening manner. Nesumi can’t find her voice. Her fingers tremble against the damp bark of the stick clutched in her hands. It seemed that it was about to attack. Within a fraction of a second the leg was brought down. Nesumi closed her eyes tight and swung the branch upward with careless abandon. 

She heard an unceremonious ‘thump’ and when once she gathered that she wasn’t dead her eyes snapped open. The smoke was blown away by the creature falling backwards onto the ground. Nesumi had successfully smacked the thing in the face with the stick before it could kill her. Now, here it laid, 4 feet away on the ground. It was obviously injured, even though she had never seen a creature like this before she could tell; the way its movements were strangled, the tears in its clothing, the fact that it was smoking and screeching really gave it away. Nerves rattled, the girl stepped away a couple feet, the banshee screams alarming her greatly. She held her stick up at the ready, now aware that it was willing to fight. Adrenaline was rushing through her veins and when the creature did start to get its bearings again, she lunged forward and smacked it over the head. Those wicked looking legs retracted into the strange pink and silver object on the back of the humanoid as it fell forward and laid in silence. Nesumi stared for what could have been 10 minutes waiting for it to move. Every now and again an arm, a leg, a weird little claw or sleek black antenna would twitch. So, it wasn’t dead. Every time a snowflake hit bare green skin it would sizzle and leave a scorch mark. Was the snow hurting or killing it? Maybe that’s what the shrieking was about. This thing was loud, whatever it was. Nesumi mulled over her options once she deemed the thing truly unconscious. She could leave it here, but that could result in it dying. Would that be immoral? It DID just try to attack her. But, then again if she had landed somewhere new and the first thing she saw was a different species holding a weapon at the ready, she might attack in self-defense as well. It was probably just disoriented. Like a scared animal backed into a corner lashing out in an attempt to scare away a predator. Thinking about it like that made Nesumi feel kinda doleful. What if it was just scared? And she hit it over the head with a stick. Twice! 

Her mom wasn’t going to be home for another couple of days. A new species was possibly dying right in front of her. She was an irresponsible 12-year-old and she was going to help the poor little… bug. Let’s call it a bug. Snow obviously hurt it, so she took off her jacket and spread it over the head of the bug guy. The cold against her exposed skin was seemingly canceled out by the heat of rushing blood pumping through her body at the terrifying experience she put herself into. Yeah, if she hadn’t come out here then the bug wouldn’t be unconscious in the snow right now and she wouldn’t be scraped up and dirty. Nesumi knew that the snow could reach up to 2 meters (abt. 8 ft) tonight and leaving the bug out here might suffocate it. But taking it home was also dangerous, mainly for her. What if it woke up and attacked on the way back or if she fell asleep and it killed her while unconscious? That was one of her worst fears, even if it was deemed one of the best ways to go, the thought still horrified her. Leaving it inside the pod didn’t look like a viable option either, seeing as it was still smoking, and god knows how one would go about bringing the windshield back down. Maybe there was something inside that could help her out though? The girl warily side-stepped around the humanoid bug and peered into the cockpit, fanning away some of the smoke with her hand. The dashboard, if that’s what you would call it, was smashed right in the middle. A small holographic screen was being projected from somewhere indiscernible. Static fizzed along parts of the holo-picture while bizarre symbols fell down the screen in the same manner the end credits of a movie would. In fact, it looked vaguely similar to coding. Those symbols were nothing like she’d ever seen before. She wanted to take a picture to look it up later but her phone laid in the muddy snow with a perfectly round hole in the center of the screen. A new language, one that the child couldn’t speak. How would she go about communicating with an extraterrestrial creature? How would she calm it down when she brought it back home? Was it poisonous to touch? That thought was the most disconcerting. A small test wouldn’t hurt, especially if she was going to carry it home. 

She knelt down, gently running her pinky finger along the smooth green skin that was peeking out from under the jacket. It was soft, like a smooth velvet. No hair nor wrinkles were visible. She drew her pinky back and studied it closely, looking for any signs of a possible flesh-eating bacteria decaying her appendage or tiny poison spikes that may have stuck as a defense mechanism. But nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It took a minute of poking random bits of its body and clothes for the anxious girl to finally feel brave enough to pick it up for the trek home. Desperate hope electrified within her as she rolled the ragdoll-like body over to discover that it was surprisingly light. Not necessarily to the degree that it would be a walk in the park to carry this thing back home, but enough to where she felt confident that she wouldn’t accidentally drop it out of exhaustion. She pulled it up by the shoulder, so it was sitting up, the head loosely rolled to the side, still covered by the jacket. At this point, assuming that the bug was still unconscious was all that she could do to keep her nerves down. Taking a deep breath and turning her back on it, she got on her knees. A cut on her shin burned from coming in contact with the freezing snow, though her body couldn’t really get any more tense. She draped the skinny arms over her shoulders and hoisted the tiny frame up against her back, leaning forward to grab behind its knees. Did it have knees? She grabbed behind its leg-joint. Now, in piggyback formation she adjusted her grip, which involved jostling the body in a short jump. It grunted and she amazingly felt her body tense more than previously thought possible. Standing perfectly still was all she could think to do as it shifted itself. Bug guy gave another flat grunt and rested its forehead in the crook of her neck. Quick, ragged breaths blew against her shoulder blade as it eventually stilled once more. Her heart rate was going a mile a minute and she had eyes so wide that they may have been freezing over. Not a muscle moved, nor a sound was emitted from her until she was absolutely certain it was still asleep. She inhaled a shaky breath and took her first step forward, paying close attention to any possible movements or sounds that would indicate that the bug guy was waking up. 

Occasionally, there would be another grunt, or a twitch of a claw. Thankfully though, it didn’t wake throughout the entire hike home. By the time Nesumi reached her front door she was shivering, her nose, ears and legs felt numb due to the unrelenting snow, which was now up to her knees. She clenched her teeth as tightly as possible to avoid chattering. She threw open the door of the house and blissfully sighed upon the feeling of sweet, toasty heat rushing her body. There was no time to waste, however! She got to work right away, rolling out a guest futon by the fireplace and setting her strange new visitor down on the cushiony blankets. Within a couple minutes the fireplace was stoked and roaring with a generous heat and glow. Nesumi had taken it upon herself to remove the shoes of the creature and place them at the entrance which was a mess from the melting snow she trekked in. Before she could get to cleaning up the mess though, she had to prepare a communication method for when bug guy woke up. To do that, she located the printer paper stash in her Mom's home office as well as a notepad and some pencils from her school bag. Three pictures were drawn, one of her fighting the creature with her stick, another where she stopped after it was laying on the ground, and the last one where she emphasized her remorse by bowing on the ground and offering fire, blankets and shelter from the snow in the form of a tent. She drew up a map to let the creature know where its ship was located in relation to her house so it wouldn’t feel like it was obligated to stay. Lastly, she left a change of clothes on the ground next to the creature (After testing them on a section of exposed skin to be sure they were safe) in case it wanted to change out of the torn uniform it currently rested in. Once everything was in place and she left the pictures in order by the fireplace, where she assumed would be the first place it would investigate, she felt comfortable enough to leave the room to take a well-needed bath. 

After only 45 minutes, Nesumi was clean, her hair was wet, and she sported a pair of blue pajamas. The silence of the house felt surreal, after everything that she experienced. You could assume that none of it even happened. Such an odd period of peace did little to calm her nerves. Her shin burned as she sat locked in her bedroom wrapping the injury with salve. Clouds completely covered the sky now and her TV was muted. Only the sound of snow softly patting the window was sounding throughout the somber setting. Eventually, it would wake up, right? She wanted to be hidden when that happened, in case it attacked again before having the chance to look at her drawings. At the same time, she wanted to get this over with, her bed was calling her name and it was so tempting. The clock currently read 2am. It wasn’t the latest she’s stayed up, but at the same time not an ideal hour to be stuck in a situation like this. Her anxiety was pulling at her. Checking on the bug wouldn’t be a bad thing, right? Just a small peek couldn’t hurt. She stood and looked over her injury to ensure the bandages were staying in place. Everything was uncertain in this moment. But a prying curiosity that burned within drove all inhibition out the door. Nothing exciting ever happened, and an alien crash-landing by her house out of all places on the planet was one hell of an adventure. She had no friends, an absent mother, and a grandmother who passed last year. This life was nothing special and a huge opportunity just presented itself. Why spend the next couple days holed up alone when you can study a brand-new species and possibly befriend it (If it didn’t disembowel her first)? Quietly, Nesumi slide her door open and descended the stairs with a pillow for a last resort weapon. Excitement and fear rising with every step closer to the living room. Her foot finally hit the floor, hand gripped the pillow tightly, and head peeked around the doorway. 

It was standing. And it was looking right at her, scowling. She froze and pressed her lips firmly together nervously, trying her best not to appear angry. Did it understand human facial expressions? Why she sure hoped it did. Finally, it spoke for the first time that night... 

“HEY!”


	2. A Nice, Calm Alien.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh shit the bug woke up. What do you feed it? How do you entertain it? Will it stop trying to kill the protag?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vanilla isn't a bean. It grows IN a bean! I'm on the fence about SOY though. Google won't give me any straight answers bout that mf. Anyways, it's hard to write out Zim's tone of voice. His vocal range is so varied, so I used a lot of sudden uppercase and italicization for emphasis.

Only the generous orange flames of the fireplace illuminated the living room of the Japanese house. For what was universally a peaceful setting, something quite stressful was taking place. The poor, foolish girl who had brought home an extraterrestrial being with the same vigor as a child finding a lost puppy has ultimately led her to a frightening situation. Because now, the bug alien was standing and glaring at her as if _she_ were the insect in the room.

“HEY!” The bug called her with a commanding and accusatory tone. Its voice was high pitched and a little squeaky, kinda like a prepubescent boy. Nesumi flinched, unable to find her voice. Blanking on how to respond she simply shuffled out from behind the safety of the wall. Her hands were clamped firmly on the white pillow from her bed which she held in front of her chest. Standing there stiff as a board she felt the heat of its stare glaring her down. She remembered that normally a person is supposed to answer when called out to. With a hard swallow she opened her mouth and forced out a reply.

“Y-yes? Can you, uhm... Are you able to understand me?” She questioned in the softest, least threatening tone she could front. It resulted in her sounding shaken to the core, which was exactly how she felt. After all, if it just woke up and knew she was coming down the stairs while she was being so quiet then it must possess incredible hearing, despite the creature having no visible ears. Is this going to be one of those instances where the alien is better than humans at everything?

Those strange red eyes squinted into an even more judgmental stare. She felt herself shrink under the unrelenting gaze. “Yes.” Came the reply flatly. “Now then,” it began, a shiny metal leg extending from its back pointed right at her. Skinny arms crossed over its chest as the intimidating creature slowly stepped forward. “You have approximately 1 minute of Earth time to explain where you have taken _Zim_ or face your inevitable doom early.” It boasted, emphasizing the name Zim as it leered at her with a sadistic air. So, the aliens’ name was Zim? Sounded kinda like a guy’s name. The point of the spindly leg started glowing with a harsh blue light, snapping Nesumi out of the stupefied state and into one of fearful confusion. Electric crackles resonated alongside a hum increasing in volume as the light grew. She stood there shaken. He was able to fire lasers from those things too? Would he fire a laser at her if he didn’t like what she said? The overwhelming hysteria allowed fight or flight instincts to suddenly kick in. Hardly a second passed as her pillow crossed the room and smacked Zim in the face. Her body moved for her to bolt up the stairs towards her room frantically, hardly registering what she just did. He’s angry, which is understandable! But to attack on site, again? Is it too much to have asked for a calm alien? She heard a loud blast, and something singed the wall violently behind her. An involuntary scream ripped from her throat as she dashed into her room and slammed the door closed, wasting no time locking it. Footsteps ascended the staircase after her loud and fast. Zims fists hammered against her door furiously.

“HooOOOW DARE YOU THROW A PILLOW AT ZIM!!” Bellowed the jerk-face who just tried to kill her. 

“YOU JUST TRIED TO KILL ME!!” Nesumi yelled back, coming off more scared than aggressive. It was a good thing it could speak Japanese, but why could it? A universal translator, maybe? She’d ask later if she didn’t wind up dead.

“Where is the DOORKNOB on this thing?” He inquired bitterly. She watched as her door jittered and shook. Looks like Zim doesn’t know about sliding doors. This seemed like it could be an opportunity to calm the situation safely. She leaned against the wall next to her door to speak through the crack.

“Why do you keep attacking me?” Nesumi asked with a sort of calmness, wanting to get the main question on her mind out of the way. 

“HEY! I’M ASKING THE QUESTIONS HERE!! How do I open??? Hoh _wait_, haha. Oh yeah.” Zim chuckled to himself; a laugh that had a dark undertone. The sound of lasers charging was evident once more and the poor fear-stricken girl barely had time to register what was about to happen. Apparently, boundaries weren’t respected by this jackass. The heat of the rays as they burned through her door would have made her wince if she wasn’t so afraid of turning away from the nightmare. Now, the only barrier protecting her from this crazed horror-bug had a Zim-sized hole in it. Holy hell, if he didn’t kill her, her mother was absolutely going to finish the job. What was she going to do? Fixing doors wasn’t something middle-schoolers were taught. God, doesn’t he know how scary her mother is? This guy was being completely unreasonable. She was going to have to nullify the situation even if it meant fighting physically. The girl wracked her brain, quickly coming to the conclusion that if hitting him over the head with a stick was enough to knock him out for a while, then he must be weak; maybe if just from the crash. Nesumi had to gamble and fight for her life again. Zim didn’t realize that she was hiding right next to the door as he stepped through the smoking hole he created. Now was her chance. She lunged forwards and tackled him to the ground clumsily. He yelped as they both hit the wooden floor. There was a brief pause as he had to reflect on what just happened. The earth child had him lying on his chest with her sitting on his legs leaning forward to pin his shoulders to the floor. A gradual sting against his face became apparent and the formerly silent house suddenly resounded with screeching as full-blown pain swallowed the afflicted area. Tiny black claws were flailing about, eventually reaching awkwardly behind his back to grip whatever he could to throw the girl off.

“OFF OFF OFF OOOOOOFFFFF! GET OFF!!! YOU BURN!!! YOU BURRRRN!!!!” He screeched while violently kicking what parts of his legs could move. Nesumi didn’t understand what could be burning him until she remembered that she was fresh out of the bath and her hair was still wet. Black strands of dripping hair were hovering over Zims face causing his skin to burn. The pressure on his back lifted as Nesumi backed off to stand by the door. He sprung for the bed and used her comforter to wipe the water droplets away vigorously.

“I’m sorry. I forgot that my hair was wet.” She said with sincerity, but her tone was firm. Her gaze stayed cautiously on the sporadic bug boy as he finished drying his skin. There was something she actually had over him. A weapon that his body was weak against and it dripped carelessly from her head. She gathered her hair together and pulled it over her shoulder. Zim turned to glare at her, obviously angry but calculating upon seeing the long bunch of water-soaked hair clutched in her fist. The girl was building a new sense of confidence now that she had some leverage. “I just want to talk.” Zim looked like he was about to refute but decided against it in case any water was flicked his way.

“What do you want from me, sniveling pig-monkey?” He spat bitterly. Nesumi flinched at the tone but stood her ground. Insults were a cake walk compared to fighting. Arguing was not at the top of her mental to-do list right now, first and foremost she needed Zim to trust her, so she shook it off. 

“Um, to answer your question from before; you’re in my house. After your ship crashed it began to storm. It seemed like the snow hurt you, and I didn’t want to leave you to possibly die. It wouldn’t have been right, even if you did attack me.” She noticed his eyes narrowing and panicked for unintentionally insulting him. “T-though I chalked that up to an unfamiliar place and stranger scaring you and dismissed it! So, I carried you here. Your name is Zim, right?” He gave a curt nod while eyeing her skeptically. She smiled in response. “I have no interest in hurting you, Zim. Not that I’d have much of a fighting chance in the first place… I don’t know why I would say that out loud when you so obviously want to kill me. But I’m willing to help you if you would just let me!” She spoke with a soft smile, making eye contact. Those big red eyes were hard to read but they seemed to falter in aggression for just a moment. Could she have been getting through to him? The speech ended with her bowing politely. “My name is Nesumi. I hope we could maybe... Be friends? At the very least let’s get along while your here.” She felt hope that her words came across honest enough and held her breath waiting for a response. All the while resisting the heavy urge to glance up in order to ensure that her life wasn’t about to end in this moment of vulnerability. Footsteps drew near her stopping just a foot away, but the alien remained quiet. It felt like her ears were ringing from the silence.

“Nesumi.” Zim said her name calmly, breaking the stilled atmosphere. The child lifted her head to meet the hard stare of the alien in front of her. “I want to make something clear. I have no interest in being friends with someone from such a lowly disgusting race as yours.” Her body began to tremble. “However, eh… seeing as you went to such lengths to ensure my safety… I suppose I could spare your life for the time being.” He spoke the last part quickly with a wave of his hand. Nesumi’s mind was blank, she internalized what he just said. He stood over her with his arms crossed; looking down at her with a much less aggressive expression than before, though still not exactly kind. A smile beamed on her face and she stood up straight. Zim reacted by looking away with a scowl.

“I’m glad we could work that out so quickly.” She said with a sigh before snapping back into a business mindset. “Please let me know what I can do to help!” She couldn’t resist leaning in excitedly. In response, Zim stepped back uncomfortably. He didn’t quite know what to think of the excitable child. After waking up only a few minutes ago to find himself held up this sad excuse for a residence just in time to see her creeping down the stairs with obvious intent of remaining unseen had made him paranoid. Weakened from the crash and without a disguise Zim knew he was terribly vulnerable. It was incredibly fortunate that she carried him out of the blizzard. The crash had badly damaged his ship and it was going to take a couple days to repair it. So, it was a good thing that she was the only one who saw him, and that she appeared to be keeping quiet about it. He’d already conducted a scan of the house to locate any organisms, which is why he spotted her before she even descended the stairs. She was the only human in the building, but that doesn’t mean she hadn’t contacted the authorities. He began to feel anxiety prickling at him. 

“I have a couple more questions that you are going to answer quickly, or I will…. Eh…” He paused his train of thought. He’d already promised not to kill her. What else do humans care about so he can get fast answers? “I will kill your friends instead of you! Whaddaya think of that?” He jeered at her triumphantly. 

“I don’t have any friends.” She shrugged. 

“Your parents, then!” He amended.

“Out of town.” She stared blankly.

“Oh.” Uh oh. 

“But I’ll answer your questions! Let’s go, lightning fast!” She jumped excitedly and gestured towards herself, wanting to do just about anything to ease his worries and get him to trust her more. 

“A-alright then, uh…” It’s off-putting to have someone so eager to help after threatening their loved ones. Was this kid okay? There wasn’t time to contemplate the sanity of the girl though, he needed answers. “Have you contacted anyone else about Zim?” 

“Nope!” 

“So, no authorities are on the way?”

“Nuh-uh.” _Excellent._

“Did anyone else see my ship crash?”

“Probably not.” 

“Why do you say that?” He couldn’t risk even a probability of being found.

“Well...” Nesumi gathered her answer for a moment with a hand on her cheek. “You crashed at about 11pm… Which is when the blizzard picked up so it would have been really hard for anyone in the village down at the base of the mountain to see anything all the way up here. Plus, everyone on this side of town goes to sleep pretty early. Plus plus, with how much it’s snowing outside there’s no way for anybody to get here. It’s already reached 150 centimeters high.” 

Zim stood there listening, nodding silently with his arms crossed. It took a second for the part about the snow to register in his mind. His expression changed from neutral to one of terror. “WAIT IT’S HOW HIGH!?” Nesumi instinctively raised her hands next to her head in a surrender at the sudden shift in his attitude.

“A-about a meter and a half.” Came her meek answer. He gawked for another couple seconds only to race down the stairs. Nesumi followed after him trying to keep up with his unnatural pace. 

Zim rounded the corner into the living room where he originally woke up. He looked around and spotted what looked like his boots on the floor by another bizarre door lacking a doorknob. Glancing down he confirmed that girl did in fact remove his boots. “That little...“ He whipped his head around to glare at her. She was carefully descending the stairs. “You REMOVED my BOOTS?!” He yelled and gestured to his feet, still covered by the black spandex that he wore under his tunic. The girl simply paused her descent and stared at him with a candid look on her face. 

“Wearing your shoes in the house is considered indecent.” She stated as if this was a well-known fact. He growled as frustration bubbled up inside him. There wasn’t time to debate the meaningless customs of the various Earth cultures. Grumbling to himself he stomped over to the door and deployed his Pak legs while charging the lasers. About to cut through the terribly designed door he was abruptly stopped by the annoyingly weird girl dashing in front of him. 

“HOLD ON A MINUTE!!!” The child yelled overwrought. She stood in front of the door protectively whilst waving her arms around. “It’s a sliding door!! Please don’t destroy any more of the house! I can’t bear to think of what will happen to me when my mother sees my bedroom door, much less the front door to go with it!” A glance at the wall by the stairs where his laser had hit made her grimace. “I’m going to be in so much trouble.” 

Zim let out an exhausted sigh while running a hand down his face. The Pak legs powered down and retracted. He stood there staring at her while she stared back. His impatience was growing with every second. “Well??? Are you going to open it?!” Maybe the decision not to kill the girl was a bit hasty on his part.

“AH! Right. Sorry, sorry.” She laughed nervously. That thing on his back distracted her. How could something so compact hold the length of all those appendages. It even had the technology to produce lasers! How was he controlling it? She turned on her heel and grabbed an indent carved into door, making a mental note of the device for later. Her body was positioned to the side so she could show him where to grip. “It slides to the left, like this.” The door slid open smoothly. A wall of snow was waiting behind it, towering over the two. They both gaped at the height. 

“Oh, that’s just perfect! Of all the- RAGH! STUPID EARTH WEATHER!!” Zim kicked the snow and a poff of it fell on his head. Like before, the icy substance began to burn him and he fell to the ground screaming and writhing. Nesumi remembered that she forgot to clean up that puddle she made on the floor from when they first got inside the house. A mortifying and pitiful sight was unraveling at her feet, rolling around in a puddle that hurt him. Zim scrambled up the step into the living room, grabbing the futon blanket and scrubbing it over his body aggressively. The child closed the front door and promptly ran to fetch some towels as the screaming died down. He panted, exhausted from how this day was going. His body had yet to fully heal from the crash, so everything was already sore. Adding poisonous water-frost to the list of things tormenting him was adding insult to injury. Nothing could be done to remedy his situation now. All he could do was sit and wait for the snow to melt to begin repairing the Voot Cruiser. If only that horrible Dib-monkey hadn’t messed with his ships systems, he wouldn’t even be in this mess right now. “Oh, how Dib will pay. I’m going to crush every bone in his fragile, mushy excuse for a body.” He seethed, thinking about how his enemy was probably rummaging around in his stuff, taking pictures and hacking into his data files. Gir was probably frolicking about with him, giving the nuisance a grand tour of his base. He pulled a transmitter out of his pak and attempted to call the buggy little robot servant. All that came through was static. Earth weather, ruining his signal. If worse comes to worse and anyone actually believed Dib for once, then he would have to pack up and move somewhere else. Definitely not this horrible, snowy wasteland he was in now. But somewhere. 

Nesumi scurried back into the living room carrying a stack of towels. She paused and looked at Zim who sat quietly on the floor. He was hunched over with the blanket wrapped around himself. “Hey.” She said softly. He jumped and looked up at her, following it with a scowl. She smiled in response. 

“What?” He asked bitterly. 

“Are you feeling cold?” She asked, cocking her head to the side curiously. 

“Cold? Zim does not _feel_ cold, dirt-child.” Zim snapped back. The girl pursed her lips and pointed at the blanket. He glanced down at his hands which were clutching the blanket tightly around himself. A growl rumbled in his throat and he tossed the blanket off with a shout. “I WAS JUST LOST IN THOUGHT.” He stood up defensively. 

Nesumi gave him a patient smile. “Okay!” Was all she had to say before trotting over to the puddle in the entryway to start cleaning. Zim watched her for a while, his tense posture eventually falling lax. Perhaps she wasn’t as annoying as he previously thought. In fact, she seemed to be rather quiet. Normally when he acted out like that people would make fun of him and give him weird looks. But after his outbursts she’s just going about her business like usual. There had to be something to it. An ulterior motive to this sickening kindness. After the puddle was wiped up the girl caught him staring. He looked away quickly, scratching his head where there was still some irritation from the water. “Would you like something to eat? Or drink?” She asked wrapping up the wet towels in a dry one. 

Zim crossed his arms again. “Your Earth food usually makes me ill.” 

Her eyes widened at his response. “So, you’ve tried Earth food before?” She inquired while stepping back up into the living room, donning a pair of slippers that hung on the wall. 

He didn’t quite understand the question until he remembered that to her, he only just fell out of the sky. To Nesumi, he was an alien fresh out of space. She didn’t know that he had a disguise, or a base on the other side of the planet. Would that be sensitive information to reveal? As an invader, keeping the intricacies of his operations secret were key to his survival. Rule #1 was to not get caught as an alien, and he’s already failed at that <strike>multiple times</strike>. But the child was acting so calm about it. As if this whole situation was something that could happen to anyone. Then again, a snack would really hit the spot right now. Over the past year he’d grown accustomed to some of this planets’ snack foods. Cheesy poofs, potato chips, candy, even the weird combination of ingredients that was waffles he was able stomach and sometimes enjoy. It couldn’t hurt to see what was available. He just had to answer her question in a way that wouldn’t reveal too much. 

“I’ve dabbled.” He shrugged. She looked like she was about to ask something else, so he quickly cut her off. “HOWEVER! I don’t mind looking over my options. There may be SOMETHING around here that I can stomach.” His hand shooed her away. “Go on, wretch. Fetch me a selection!” He commanded with his chest puffed out. Nesumis expression was blank but she smiled and nodded. 

“Right away!” She grinned with a salute and ran towards what Zim could only assume to be a kitchen. He smirked to himself, the salute was a nice touch. This kid was kinda fun. 

In the kitchen Nesumi rummaged through the fridge and cabinets. She wasn’t exactly thrilled about the occasional name-calling but if he felt comfortable enough to ask her for food then she would gladly offer him the hospitality to further gain his trust. There wasn’t a whole lot to work with dinner-wise. Her mother left her 20,000 yen for groceries so she could make herself some food but being an irresponsible 12-year old she spent half of it on snacks at the local convenience store. Luckily, she ONLY spent half of the money so there was another 10,000 yen to last her the next couple of days. She stacked the various snacks in her arms carefully. The selection included a limited edition bag of potato chips, flan pudding, salted rice crackers, a few okonomiyaki flavored umaibo (Savory pancake flavored rice sticks), strawberry marshmallows, a bag of dried sardines, a package of daifuku (fruity mochi), soda-flavored fizzy hard candies, and 4 various packaged breads. After she could no longer stack anything else, she gradually made her way over to the tatami table on the floor of the living room and gently laid the spread across the smooth wooden surface. Zim stood next to the table watching her set up the selection neatly. 

“There we go!” She stood up and straightened out her pajama top. “There’s also cup noodles, juice, and tea but I didn’t want to offer you anything with water in it. Also, I’m not the best cook so I can’t really offer much more than breakfast foods and sandwiches with confidence, in case you wanted a hot meal.” She laughed nervously while fidgeting her hands. 

Zim nodded and glanced back down at the selection. He wasn’t able to read the packaging, but some of the snacks looked familiar. The candy, bread and chips were most appealing. Other things piqued his interest. The girl was being conveniently helpful for such a stupid creature. She ran back towards the kitchen and came out with a small plate and two spoons. “What are you doing?” He asked as she sat down on her legs in front of the table.

“This is how you’re generally supposed to sit at a table like this.” She stated while setting the plate and spoons down. Zim scratched the back of his neck as his eyes darted from her back to the snacks a couple times. When she looked up at him, he froze as their eyes caught. Slowly, he mimicked her actions and sat down in front of the table straightening his back just as she had. Nesumi grabbed the small plastic cup containing a pale-yellow substance and peeled the top off. A sweet aroma wafted around the two, Zim’s antenna twitched. Holding the cup over the plate she turned it upside down and they both watched as the substance slid out of the container and plopped onto the platter with very satisfying wiggles. 

“What... is that?” He asked, unable to take his eyes off of the jiggly treat. 

“It’s pudding. Wanna try?” She chirped and slid the plate towards him with a spoon set neatly on the side. All the pudding he’d seen before was usually less shapely. It intrigued him, but he couldn’t risk an allergic reaction. 

“What’s in it?” He asked, picking up the spoon and poking the side to appreciate the way it swayed back and forth. 

The girl picked up its container. “It’s got egg, sugar, evaporated milk, and vanilla.” She read while picking up her own spoon and scooping up a bite size amount, popping it in her mouth and smiling blissfully. “It’s my favorite dessert. So smooth and sweet.” 

Zim eyed her carefully, studying her reaction to the pudding. Everything she listed wasn’t on his Earthly allergy lineup and it smelled pretty good. A small bite wouldn’t hurt. He could have a taste and see how his stomach fared after some time passed. He pushed his spoon into the gelatinous mass and dug himself a modest piece, bringing it up close to his face to smell it. The scent wasn’t offensive like most Earth food. Sticking his tongue out he tested the taste. It didn’t hurt. In fact, it was rather pleasant. Nesumi watched as he carefully analyzed everything about the tiny bit of pudding on his spoon before finally popping it into his mouth. His eyes widened with the spoon still sitting in his mouth. The sugary taste was rich and smooth just as she had described. He removed the spoon and swallowed the pudding, waiting for any disturbance in his belly. Nothing. 

“Do you want the rest?” Came Nesumi’s voice, snapping him out of his conjectured state. She was pointing her spoon at the dessert. It was so very tempting. The flavor was something he was probably going to want to eat again in the future. “Er… I guess you didn’t like it.” She smiled patiently at his lack of a response and began to pull the plate back towards herself, but Zims’ hand grabbed her wrist swiftly. “Uh-”

“I’ll be having the rest of this, _pudding_. So, remove your filthy hand from the plate this instant!” He practically yelled while leaning over the dessert protectively. Nesumi pressed her mouth into a thin line at the outburst, promptly releasing her fingers but unable to pull her hand away due to his strong grasp. He didn’t budge until the dish was pulled completely over to his side of the table and out of her reach, keeping strong eye contact the whole time. When she could move her hand again, she rubbed the area he grabbed. It wasn’t necessarily the strength that hurt, but his claws. Those suckers were sharp. They left indents on her skin in the same manner that jabbing yourself with a fingernail would. His reaction reminded her of a video where an owner tried to take a bone away from his pet dog. The dog was hunching over the bone protectively and snarling. It would bite the owner gently enough not to leave any wounds, but strong enough to leave teeth indents.

She smiled to herself, happy that he didn’t do as much damage as he was capable of. Zim shoveled a spoonful of pudding into his mouth. Overwhelming exhaustion was suddenly weighing on the girls’ shoulders. This whole situation was winding down. With him no longer attacking her and the pair finally sitting down together everything seemed to slow down. Glancing over at the antique wall clock the roman numerals read 3:25. She wanted to turn in for the night but didn’t want to risk leaving Zim alone. He may have said he wasn’t going to kill her. But he didn’t mind destroying her house. Those snacks weren’t going to last him all night and she had no idea what would be considered entertainment for him. Not that her immediate assumption was horrible acts of torture, but she had no idea who he was or what he was fully capable of. The safest bet was to stick it out. Her mom kept instant coffee in the cabinet, so when and if she felt like she was losing the uphill battle of staying awake there was back-up on her side. 

“Would you like to watch TV?” She asked, hoping the distraction would be enough to keep him entertained and keep herself awake. Zim was trying to scoop the last bit of the pudding onto his spoon. 

“Fine, yeah, whatever.” Was his inattentive response. 

Nesumi grabbed the remote and turned the television on. The harsh bright light made her wince. They had been sitting in the living room with only the fireplace and the kitchen’s stove light shining in from the other room to illuminate their surroundings. Zim didn’t seem affected by it at all. She was so curious about him it was almost unbearable. To have an alien in your house and not ask it a million questions took the patience of a god. ‘What was space like? What is the name of your race? Do you sleep? Can your back pod do other cool things?’ But Zims’ attitude was so unstable. He nearly tore her arm off over pudding! Just one question couldn’t hurt, since it was sorta relevant and wouldn’t seem out of nowhere. If he didn’t get angry then maybe she could ask some more questions. Hopefully, they would get to the point where they could hold a conversation.

“Can you see in the dark?” She asked while crossing her arms on top of the table. Zim was finally finished with the plate. Somehow, he got it completely clean without licking it. His focus went from her to the TV then back to the snacks. There was a quiz show rerun playing. 

“It would depend on how dark.” He said while reaching for the potato chips. Nesumi’s stomach did a flip. He was talking to her! She slid the bag over to him. For a second she thought she heard a mumbled “Thanks.” As he opened the bag easily. It wasn’t hard to believe he’d ‘dabbled’ in Earth food before as he had put it with how naturally the process of snacking came to him.

“What’s your favorite Earth snack so far?” She imposed again while laying her head down in the crook of her arm. Zim’s antenna perked. After trying the pudding everything else seemed secondary. 

“The ehm… Pudding… Stuff.” As he spoke, he rolled his hand in the air, focusing on the TV while trying to recall the name of the gelatinous treat. Nothing like that existed on Irk. Or anywhere in space as far as he had traveled. He wondered if the grocery stores in his neighborhood carried them. “Do you have any more of those ‘puddings’? He asked her out of curiosity. 

Nesumi chuckled quietly to herself and let her head fall to the side to look at the TV. “Yeah, they’re in the fridge if you want them.” She spoke more softly. The transparency of his question obvious to the non-confrontational child. 

“Really? Neat.” Zim was already planning when to grab a second serving while popping a potato chip into his mouth. They were strangely sweet and savory at the same time. Looking at the bag he could see a picture of a strange earth fruit and what he recognized as butter from when Gir would sometimes cook. His bases’ town didn’t have any flavors like this either. 

“How long do you think it could take for you to fully repair your ship?” Nesumi asked, closing her eyes. The light of the TV was straining, and she wanted the let them rest for a bit.

Zim was focusing on trying to remember what the name of the weird fruit on the bag was called. He had seen it before in commercials but never up close. Without thinking he answered the girls question habitually. “About 3-6 rotations. Of course, it all depends on how extensive the damage to the engines is and what tools are available for me to use.” He turned the bag over, hoping maybe there would be some kind of English, but it was all still the strange characters. “However, being that you Earthlings aren’t advanced enough to have developed the technology to assist me in properly fixing my ship…” He sighed at the thought. There were a few other times where he had this issue on other planets when searching for supplies, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. But having to build repair tools from scratch every time he got stranded was getting to be a mundane task. If only Gir didn’t consistently remove his necessities from the storage compartment to make room for all the useless junk he liked to collect. “I’m going to have to waste extra time gathering materials that will get the job done. At least, enough to get it flying again, the computer and systems coming back online are a secondary luxury.” That fruit was alluding him. It was on the tip of his tongue. “Say, what’s the name of the fruit on this bag? It’s _taunting, Zim._” He sneered at picture. His question was met with silence. Was she caught up in the show? Humans have horrible attention spans. He spoke more tersely while turning towards her “_HEY!_ NES-... -umi...” His voice lost traction once he saw her. 

She was sleeping. Right. Humans did that. He didn’t think it would happen so abruptly, though. Didn’t humans only sleep around people they trusted? He could’ve sworn that was how his computer put it. A show on TV had mentioned something called ‘slumber parties.’ Some strange, meaningless gathering for humans to fall asleep together with their closest friends. Did the child trust him like a friend? He couldn’t help but feel a twinge of relaxation. Someone who was plotting to backstab you probably wouldn’t let their guard down so much as to go unconscious in the presence of their enemy. Perhaps the child really was just weird and wanted to help him with no ulterior motive. Ah, the innocence of a dumb human child. She didn’t have any idea that she was aiding in the annihilation and enslavement of her species. He figured he would let her sleep. It would give him the opportunity to fully search the house for anything that could be useful in the ship’s repairs, as well as discover any secrets the girl may have been hiding. And when she woke up after the standard 8 hours of sleep, he would grill her on more details about when her parental figures were due to return home. He needed to be gone by the time the adults got back. They may have also been incredibly stupid, but they were more competent than the children. In the meantime, channel surfing the new selection of television stations was going to help him pass the time and wait out this blizzard. Nesumi suddenly stirred in her sleep, startling him. 

“Mango…” Came an almost inaudible mumble, just as she shifted her head to rest with her face down in her arms. Zim blinked. 

“_Oooooooh_! Right, _right_. It was called a mango…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I didn't forget about the pictures Nesumi drew in Chapter 1. _They_ did. It'll come up in Chap. 3. Really I just didn't know where to fit it in here without it seeming out of place.  
I've tried the mango & butter potato chips. Not bad, if you have a sweet tooth. Or maybe I'm just super weird. └(◉◞౪◟◉)┘  
Btw, I have a headcannon based off of the wiki speculations; that Zim can understand spoken language but not written. Which is why he got lost easily in Walk of Doom. But eventually learned to read it, so he was learning in _The Girl who Cried Gnome_ (When struggling to read the word "Doorbell" displayed in english on his moniter.) and then later can be seen reading a newpaper in _Zim Eats Waffles_ making it likely that he learned it.
> 
> Feedback and criticism on writing techniques are always welcome! Thanks for reading~!


	3. No Secrets Here.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I dunno. Breakfast, phonecall, blood and stuff.
> 
> Updated tags!
> 
> Also! I drew up some of the scenes so far (plus some scenes to come)  
Check it out here: https://red-fruits-art-blog.tumblr.com/image/189260469756

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING!! This chapter contains BLOOD! As someone who isn't good with the subject, I wrote it in just a way that makes me cringe, so be careful!
> 
> Yo I did a lot of research for this chapter. Mainly because I don't want to make anything unrealistic. If Zim can't eat meat or beans then he must be allergic to protein right? But proteins in milk and dairy products, so why wouldn't waffles make him real sick? Answer: There are different types of protein. Arginine is the kind of protein that can be found in meat and beans, but not in dairy! So my heavily researched head-cannon: Irkens are poisoned by Arginine. Thoughts? Comments? Concerns? Please for the love of god talk to me I love you so much.

When the antique wall clock chimed it’s low, mechanical bell three times Nesumi’s eyes shot open. She was laying on her back staring up at the bottom of a wooden table. The first thing she sleepily distinguished was the coldness of the air. Her hands and feet felt frozen. She huffed a shaky breath into her hands rubbing them together while trying to recall what she was doing. Audio from the television grabbed her attention and she strained her neck to look towards the sound, noticing there was someone else sitting at the table. The table where she and the alien named Zim had been snacking. _Zim_… The memories of last night came flooding back all too sudden.

“I FELL ASLEEP??” The girl shot up, somehow forgetting the table was right there and slammed her forehead against the unforgivably hard surface. “HAA-- Owowowowowow.” She rolled onto her side pressing her icy palm against the tender area under her bangs. It throbbed, eliciting a groan as she slid out from underneath the table begrudgingly. There was a snicker. Nesumi rubbed her forehead, squinting her eyes as they adjusted to the bright light of the television screen in this still darkened room. Outside, snow piled up higher than the windows preventing any light from shining through, and the once magnificent fire was now just a few charred logs sitting in ash. Zim was still sitting at the table, leaning on his elbow facing the television while looking at the girl with an amused smirk as she got a hold on her surroundings. He had finished the chips, ate all of the candy and finished off a few more puddings. Two of the packaged breads remained: a sweet red bean roll, and melon bread. Meaning he ate the custard roll and the matcha bun. Nesumi looked at the clock, struggling to make out the numbers in the dim light. 9:45. Even after planning not to fall asleep she succumbed-- and she was very disappointed in herself. Only the low volume of the TV surrounded the calm atmosphere until Zim spoke up.

“Do you know when your parents are due back?” He asked, returning his attention to the TV. An old mech anime was playing. His posture seemed much more relaxed compared to last night. Nesumi glanced at him wondering if he’d been awake this whole time.

“Um… I was told 5 days.” Her voice was groggy. Sleeping on the floor of a cold living room made her throat sore. A hot cup of tea with honey sounded really good right now. But before that, she needed to get ready for her day of being stuck inside the house with a big talking space bug. “Could you please excuse me for a little while? I want to get dressed.” She spoke, her voice stiffened as she stretched.

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “You’re _already_ dressed.” He stated while drumming his fingers against the table. Humans baffled him with how meaningless their daily actions could be.

“I can’t stay in my pajamas all day! Besides, it’s gotten really cold in here and I want to put on a sweater.” She said with a shiver, clasping her hands together. “I need to put the fire back on soon too.”

“Ah. So _that’s_ why you were chattering in your sleep.” He drew a conclusion to the mystery that he didn’t really care about. During the night he rummaged through a couple rooms and some cellar that he found looking for anything of interest; he failed. By the time he came back to the living room she was laying on the floor in a less than graceful manner. With her long hair spread everywhere haphazardly and drool pooling to the corner of her mouth. It was unpleasant, so he rolled her under the table to avoid having to look at it. Only an hour ago she started making some strange clacking noise and shivering. Even though it was mildly irritating he let it slide thinking it may just be another form of that snoring her kind does. He didn’t think she would spring up from her sleep and smack her head against the table the way she did; but it was funny.

Nesumi knit her brow and leaned to the side, making sure not to obstruct Zims’ view of the TV, but trying to get into his field of vision. “You mean you didn’t notice the room get cold?” She asked keeping her balance on one foot carefully.

“We’ve already been over this, worm-child. Zim does not get _cold_.” He glared at her, wondering why he felt like he had to repeat himself for this idiot-creature. Maybe it was because she saved him? If he helped her somehow, then perhaps this feeling of ‘owing’ her would go away. Zim felt disgusted just by the thought of it.

“So… Your body isn’t affected by changes in temperature or you just don’t notice mild differences?” She pushed further despite his slightly irritated tone. Curiosity over the alien was too overwhelming for the girl to ignore.

“Nes, you just go and do whatever you were going to do. I’m trying to watch uh…” His tone was mildly annoyed as he squinted at the weird animated show about giant robots, blanking on the name. “...This.” He finished, pointing at the television without removing his elbow from the tabletop. Nesumi responded by standing up properly and staring at him. Zim tried to ignore her presence but found himself getting aggravated. Even after giving her explicit permission to leave she was still going to stand there? He looked at her, anger written all over his face, but it was quickly wiped away by the look on hers. She was smiling excitedly with her hands clasped together under her chin. “...What?”

“You gave me a nickname!” Her voice was ecstatic.

“I gave you a wha-now?” Came his confused and slightly repulsed response.

“A nickname! It’s something you call your friends that isn’t their original name. I’ve never really had friends, so I’ve never gotten a nickname. All the girls at school gave each other really cute ones and I was so jealous because everyone only ever calls me by my family name! Nes… It sounds really cool! Thank you!!” She finished her spiel with a quick bow and ran up the stairs.

“**NO!** NO, GET BACK DOWN HERE! WE ARE NOT _FRIENDS_.” Zim yelled, he didn’t know what to think. Really, he had just forgotten her whole name. Nicknames weren’t that big of a deal in America. Dib called him things like ‘Space-boy’ and they were enemies! This girl was stressful. Nesumi didn’t come back down the stairs, probably getting dressed already. Zim slid his hands down his face and stood up, slogging towards the entryway and sliding the door open. He grimaced at the wall of snow that was still there, taller than last night. The whole door was blocked off. Not even a sliver of light could peak through. Throughout the night he attempted to call Gir with his communicator but received the same damning static as before. He couldn’t help feeling nervous about leaving his servant alone with Dib. Gir liked Dib a lot. It was something Zim had learned to plan around when scheming. But with his base’s defenses malfunctioning due to Dibs meddling there was a good chance all his Gir-factor precautions weren’t working. With how many times the computer and Gir just let the horrible Earth-boy walk right in he had to write up his own security script to encode the systems with. However, they activated based off of the computer acknowledging that the Dib had stepped foot inside the premises. So of _COURSE,_ it was the computer that _HAD_ to go down first. Before he could step foot back in the base Zim needed to figure out how Dib got into his security from outside. He wanted to torture the information out of the Dib-beast.

While he was seething downstairs, Nesumi was humming happily in her room. Overjoyed with the friendly gesture from the alien she developed a positive outlook on how the rest of his stay was going to go. She got dressed quickly, sporting a cozy fleece sweater and a long skirt that went down to her ankles. Putting knee-high fuzzy socks on she yelped at a sudden sting. The bandages that were wrapped around her wounded shin had old blood blotches staining through to the outer wrappings. It looked pretty gruesome for what was supposed to be a minor scrape. She went to the bathroom to rewrap it. However, upon unwrapping the bandages the girl began to feel woozy at the sight of her rust-colored blood smeared into the bandages and along her leg. This was a whole lot more bleeding than she anticipated there being; and the wound itself was looking worse for wear. Nesumi took a deep breath. Blood wasn’t her strong suit. If she saw too much was lost, then there’s a good chance she’d faint. But she knew she would have to grow out of it sometime. Especially with how much bullying was happening at school lately, not that it bothered her much. She was used to her peers looking down on her. Though, physical harassment made the experience a little more unbearable. Besides all of that, she figured Zims’ situation must be much worse than measly school bullying. He fell out of the sky and crashed into a mountain, after all. The fact that he seemed okay was interesting. There was a medical kit sitting inside the cabinet under the sink. She didn’t know if anything in it would help him but asking wouldn’t hurt! It’d probably have been better asking last night, but she was weak to sleep. She shrugged-- better late than never!

After a few minutes the girl cleaned and re-wrapped her shin, brushed her hair and teeth, and washed her face. She rushed back down the stairs, slipping and barely catching herself on the wall due to her soft socks giving her little traction. Zim snapped towards the sound anticipating her return and slammed his hands on the table. “HEY!” Nes paused at the tone of his voice whilst trying to get ahold of her footing. She carefully stood up and faced him while stepping back into the living room.

“Just because you’re sheltering me here and I’m not killing you in return does NOT make us FR-”

“Are you still hurt?” The girl cut him off. She got the gist of what he was about to say but wanted to change the subject before he could finish. He wasn’t about to ruin her promising day because he was arrogant.

“Excuse me?” He deadpanned, almost impressed at her insolence.

“You looked pretty banged up last night. I forgot to ask you then since I was focused on trying to get you to calm down enough to talk… And I ended up falling asleep instead.” She smiled sheepishly and scratched her cheek thinking back on how his perspective must have been then. “I was wondering if anything still hurt, and if there was anything I could do to help? We have a medical kit upstairs, but I didn’t want to apply anything that could harm you.”

Zim paused. The pain he felt from the crash ceased at some point last night, but he can’t recall when. She looked so eager to help him. Even though he was some strange creature that attacked her on first site, the stupid girl was worried that he might be uncomfortable. It made him laugh. It wasn’t a maniacal laugh like usual, but a calm one that had a hint of smugness to it. “Foolish girl. My superior body has already completely healed itself. Besides, none of your meek Earth ointments could be of any use to me. It would be a total waste of time.” He said waving his hand at her dismissively. Nesumi furrowed her brow.

“Making sure you’re okay isn’t a waste of time.” She said crossing her arms defensively. He blinked at her reaction. The reasons behind her motives were a complete mystery to him. She didn’t want to hurt him, and she didn’t like when he was hurt. She wasn’t asking for anything in return for her services; he wasn’t doing anything for her except occasionally answering her bothersome questions. Even though it gained her nothing she kept offering her fruitless assistance. He was starting to feel bad; unable to tell if it was repentance of his actions or just pity for the girl and her inevitable foolishness.

“Look… Your concern for my overall health is eh… Appreciated. But you shouldn’t worry yourself over such things. I am far too great to be defeated by something as insignificant as a ship crash. Zim has been through much more harrowing circumstances than this.” He stood up and walked up to her. She was shorter than him by an inch, something he was quite pleased about. She dropped her arms as he walked over, judging by her expression she wasn’t expecting this action. He was about to say something else, but her voice stopped him, grabbing his full attention.

“Amazing…” She mumbled.

“...What?” He asked, not quite sure he heard her right. She smiled wide.

“That’s amazing!! You’ve really been in life-threatening danger before?” Her voice was excited. She stared at him eagerly.

“Well, it’s what I trained for.” He said casually before panicked realization dawned; he smacked his hand over his mouth for speaking so impulsively.

“What kind of job do you have that you trained to put yourself in such dangerous situations?!” She was completely enthralled now.

“FORGET I SAID ANYTHING!” Zim angrily put his face very close to hers attempting to intimidate the girl into stopping her incessant questioning on this subject. Shockingly, Nesumi leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his with a serious look on her face.

“What kind of job do you have that you can’t talk about it?” Her eyes bore into him. The sudden boldness of the once timid girl threw Zim for a loop. Just last night she was cautious of his every move; and now here she was challenging him. He didn’t know what to do, so he pushed her away reflexively. With a yelp the unprepared child fell backwards onto her butt. “Hey!!”

“I command you to cease your bothersome questions! Learn your place!” He shouted taking a defensive stance at the possibility of her retaliating. Instead she sat there donning a bewildered look. That was the first time he actually managed to land a hit on her-- not that her goal was to aggravate him to that point. Her expression fell to a neutral one. She supposed this was her fault for pressuring him. It seems that this subject is a sensitive one and she figured that something about it must’ve triggered him. If it didn’t sound so much like he was bragging a few seconds ago then she probably wouldn’t have pushed so hard. The girl could’ve sworn he sounded proud in a way, but she decided to let it go for the sake of peace.

Zim eyed her warily. Instead of jumping back up to fight she just sat there expressionless. Eventually she spoke up, almost making him jump. “I guess you’re avoiding something big, huh? I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable. I can be an airhead sometimes… when it comes to how others are feeling, I mean.” Her soft tone lulled him into loosening his tense posture some. An apology… Yet another thing he didn’t expect from the child he shoved to the ground only a moment ago. If it were anyone else there would have at least been some kind of verbal offense in return. More and more the girl was intriguing him with her strange attitude and behaviors. “How about…” She began, a twinkling hope in her voice. “How about when I do anything that makes you uncomfortable: You let me know right away? That way there isn’t a chance of me going overboard like just now; and you won’t feel like you have to get violent to make me stop!” Nesumi sat up slightly as she spoke but didn’t stand. His stance was still looking tense and she wanted him to calm down completely before trying to get up again. Zim thought about her proposal. It would be great to have her stop her nonsense as soon as it started. “But in return…” She spoke up again, a mischievous glint in her eyes. He narrowed his eyes. The girl was finally demanding something out of him. “I want you to have breakfast with me!” She beamed happily. The bug dropped his defensive stance completely. He should’ve guessed. There doesn’t seem to be an ounce of ill will in her body. He was starting to wonder who the alien in this house really was. Because she certainly didn’t act like the rest of her kind did. Why was she being so hospitable to an alien in the first place?

“In return for you respecting any boundaries I lay down; you want me to eat morning foodstuffs with you?” He felt dumb even _trying_ to make sense of her thought process.

“Yeah! Breakfast! I was thinking about making some food and it occurred to me that maybe this could be a good opportunity to test what you can and can’t eat! That way you can try other food without needing to test it carefully like with the pudding last night! What do you think?” She explained her idea enthusiastically. Understanding what this alien could eat would mean there’s a possibility they might be able to sit down and have a meal together. It used to be that Nesumi and her grandmother would sit down every night and eat together. Those meals really made her day after a rough time at school. Last night Zim sat down and ate snacks without making a fuss. If she was lucky, they might even get to eat without the TV distracting him too much.

Zim stared at her with his bottom lip jutting out. Her happy-go-lucky attitude was annoying. Wasn’t she melancholic only a second ago? Though she did have a good idea. He’d never sat down and actively tried out different foods to see what he could and couldn’t digest. Not to mention, this added bonus of being able to command her to shut up whenever he wanted to go with it.

“So, no matter what it is, you’ll stop doing something if I tell you to?” He asked quirking and eye.

“Of course!” She replied while clenching her fists with a determined look.

“And all I have to do is sit down and eat with you?” His antenna lifted a bit, this deal really seems like there must be something else to it.

Nesumi stood up and nodded “Exactly!” He processed it for a few seconds more before shrugging.

“Alright Nes. You’ve got a deal!” Zim put his fists on his sides. “Now, go off and make that break-fast stuff.”

“Right!” The girl started towards the kitchen but paused. “Oh! Before I start cooking… Is there anything you already know of that you can’t eat?” She hung in the doorway of the kitchen while leaning out to look at him.

“Oh uh... “ He clenched his jaw. What if she tried to poison him? Or leaked his weaknesses to others looking to do him harm. Nesumi promptly took notice of his uneasiness at the question.

“Would you feel better watching me cook? I could tell you everything that’s going into the food while I work.” Her patient smile was reassuring. Zim wavered. He hated that she had this weird ability to make him feel calm. But the longer he spent around her the more he somehow knew that she had no intention of harming him. His paranoia keeps dying, which is dangerous.

“I guess… that could work.” He avoided looking at her. In response she smiled and beckoned him into the kitchen; finally walking all the way in herself. Outwardly cringing at what he just agreed to, he followed after her. The kitchen lights flicked on and the girl brought out different cooking equipment.

“So, if I make a little bit of all the things I know how to make we could cross a ton of stuff off the list right away!” Nes chirped while tying her hair up and putting on a blue apron decorated with a floral pattern along the bottom.

“We’re making a list?” Zim asked, standing off to the side of the doorway so as to stay out of her way as she buzzed around the kitchen gathering her supplies in no particular order.

“Yeah! Breakfast is usually pretty straightforward when it comes to the ingredients. By writing down the different components we can cross things off the list when you don’t exhibit any negative reactions!” After laying all the ingredients along the counter she began washing her hands. “Going forward you’ll be able to narrow down the things that you’re allergic to by referencing the list!” The focused look on her face was surely something. Her sudden motivation inspired by intense curiosity over the aliens’ pallet. A bonus to her discoveries today would be if he enjoyed her cooking.

Zim was surprised at her random bout of competence. Keeping a list on him was nothing new. He had a list of the names and dates of human holidays, so he wasn’t caught off guard at school, a list for things he needed to buy from the grocery stores, a list of the repairs he had to make to the base every time something broke. Luckily, he had his list tablet with him in his pak at all times, so he went ahead and pulled it out. Nesumi shouted at him, loudly dropping a pot into the sink that she was filling with water. It made Zim jump. “WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM!?!?” He screamed.

“THAT THING DOUBLES AS A STORAGE CONTAINER TOO?!” Her amazement with his technology was stronger than her need for food at the moment.

“Please affirm that isn’t the STUPID reason you’ve just annoyed me for.” He spoke irate and almost flustered from the shock she gave him there. Once again, he found himself rethinking his stance on killing the girl.

“But it’s so cool! It fits all those long legs AND the technology for lasers AND other things! How does it work? What’s its purpose? It does other things too can’t it?” She was so distracted by his pak she failed to notice the water overflowing the pot. Zim casually pointed at it disgruntled as she stared at him, pulling her from the dreamy state long enough to pour out half of the water and set the pot on the stove. “Come on… What’s it do??” She pleaded.

“It’s called a Pak and it’s what keeps me alive on this miserable planet of dirt.” He explained almost sounding tired. Nesumi nodded in understanding.

“So it filters the air, regulates your internal systems and keeps you nourished?” She speculated. Zim was stunned. She had it exactly right. There were a few other things missing but those were three of the main functions.

“How did you—“

“So traveling to other planets is such a common thing that you have a whole device installed specifically for keeping you alive?!” She was getting even more excited.

“Yes but—“ He was getting even more irate.

“Does your whole species do interstellar travel?!”

“ALRIGHT I’M SETTING A BOUNDARY!” Zim screamed. Nesumi’s excited attitude dropped and became serious in an instant. The alien bared his teeth as he talked. “From this moment onward, you will not ask about my home planet, my occupation, or my race.”

“Does that include questions about anatomy too?” She asked with a hint of inhibition. Even though she desperately wanted to disobey the girl knew it would only make her future oaths untrustworthy.

“Yes. Anatomy included.” If he could visibly roll his eyes for necessary exaggeration, he would.

“But… We’re keeping notes on your food intake…” She pointed out.

“_Fine_. Questions related to food are allowed.” He crossed his arms and leaned up against the wall. Nesumi thought to herself for a moment before nodding with a grin. There were plenty of questions revolving around food that could last her a while. Even if he wouldn’t let her ask about some of the more burning curiosities, she could deal.

“Understood!” She gave him a triumphant thumbs up.

Halfway through cooking breakfast Zim found himself getting bored watching. He figured the girl would be fine if left on her own, so he went back to the living room to continue watching TV. Nesumi didn’t mind. Something about having him stand there staring so intensely without any conversation was making it a little awkward. Not that she didn’t try to spark a conversation. He just made a point to keep his responses short and sweet, which prompted the girl to give it a rest for now. She wanted to focus on cooking anyway. After thirty minutes, everything that Nesumi could make with the available ingredients in the house was prepared and ready to eat at last. There was a mixture of Japanese and Western style breakfast foods. Pancakes, toast, bacon and small sausages for the western half. Miso soup with tofu, a rolled omelette, steamed white rice and some salt broiled fish for the Japanese half. While there were a few other side dishes Nesumi wanted to prepare, she also didn’t want to keep Zim waiting too long with how impatient he was. It took a few trips to get everything into the living room but the set up was nice. She even made some milk tea to go with the Western foods. Before sitting down, she stoked the fire with a new bundle of firewood.

Zim eyed the food in front of him. Some of it was familiar junk from America, others completely new. Nesumi sat a pen and paper down on the table and proceeded to write out the different foods in her foreign characters, making Zim a little nervous. Being unable to understand something always drove him crazy. It’s why he holds himself up in his lab constantly doing experiments and studies: to understand as much as he can. Even if he often misinterprets behavioral information, science and fact he can grasp perfectly. Maybe it’s his obsessive nature contributing to his growing fascination with this human girl. Consistently proving herself to be more clever than she makes herself out to be. She can pick up on his mood and adjusted her demeanor accordingly without being commanded, while others of her race are too dense or wouldn’t bother. She’s correctly guessed the functions of his Pak with seemingly no prior knowledge of advanced technology or his race. Her attitude in general was interesting to him. How she could keep so calm about an alien in her presence, or him threatening to kill her loved ones. She knows he’s dangerous. Yet she treats him like a friend, and Zim can’t figure out why. He’s promised not to kill her so it shouldn’t be out of self-preservation. Perhaps she thinks that he’ll perform experiments on her. Well, now he’s starting to think it could be a good way to understand what’s going on in her head.

The portions Nesumi set up for him were fairly small but he had no idea what was in the Japanese food since he left the kitchen before she started cooking that half. If he knew she was going to be making this other stuff he would have stuck around to be safe. Nesumi saw how apprehensive he looked and spoke up.

“Why don’t you start out by touching each item first before tasting? Just to be sure it won’t burn your mouth.” She demonstrated by dipping the tip of her pinky finger in her miso soup. “I’ll take whatever you don’t like and give you my half of what you enjoy. Sound okay?” She wiped her finger off on a nearby napkin and slid the cloth over to his side of the table.

Zim nodded and followed her movements, dipping one of his claws into the miso soup. It burned like crazy and he retracted swiftly, wiping it off on the napkin. “WHAT’S IN THAT!?!” He shouted rubbing his hand. Nesumi scooted near him and pulled the bowl over to her side of the table.

“It’s soup, so it has water. I put tofu and seaweed in it as well.” She drank his portion in one gulp since there wasn’t a lot in the bowl and put a mark next to one of the items on her list.

“WHY WOULD YOU GIVE ME SOMETHING WITH WATER IN IT?!” He shrieked while standing, baffled that he even entertained the thought that she could be intelligent in the first place. She tensed at his outburst.

“O-oh. Um… How do I put this…” Her voice held a slight uneasiness and she was avoiding eye contact. “You ate those two packaged breads, right?” She smiled up at him nervously.

“Yes. And?” He leered and hovered over her, feeling a confidence boost at her nervousness.

“Well bread is…” Nesumi scooted away from him to gain a bit of personal space. “It’s made with water. So, I figured that if you could eat something that at one time came in contact with water, then there had to be a point in cooking where the liquid wouldn’t harm you anymore.” Her explanation came methodically as she tried to focus on touching the tips of her fore-fingers together instead of his rage-filled eyes boring into her. If Zim mistook this as her trying to poison him, she really didn’t want to be close enough for him to hurt her. Now that he actually landed a hit on her it seemed more realistic. “Soup seemed like a good starting point to test my theory, since it’s still in liquid form but contains different ingredients.” She finished with a short-lived glance up at him.

Zim stayed glaring at her for a bit. Nesumi avoided eye contact as she preferred being non-confrontational in situations like these, usually it would cause the drama to be over sooner. Eventually, Zim silently sat back in his seat once again, cross-legged this time. He picked up the plate of fish and sat it over on her side of the table. “I’m not going to be able to eat anything with meat or beans in it.” He said rather calmly. Nesumi looked at the fish then back up at him. The look on his face made it hard for her to tell what he was thinking, but she smiled and took note of his allergies on her notepad. For a few minutes they sat in silence, save for the TV playing at a low volume. Zim taught himself to use chopsticks pretty quickly just by sneaking a couple glances at Nesumi. When he took his first bite of the rice, he made a disgusted face, but slowly it grew neutral and he just kept eating it without a word.

“Is it okay?” Nes asked picking up her pencil.

“It’s not making me sick.” Zim replied keeping his attention on the TV. Nesumi crossed rice off the list.

“The rice was made with water.” She felt the need to point out. Zim tensed a bit, looking down at the rice. Slowly he relaxed again, taking out his own tablet and making a note.

“What else was in the soup?” He asked sounding bored.

Nesumi thought for a moment as a small realization dawned on her. “Soybeans.” She stated. It was hard to tell what Zim was thinking right now as he typed away on his tablet. Sometimes he would glance up at her as he wrote. The girl felt anxiousness creeping up on her. Did she make him angry? Was he planning to do something to her? “Um…”

“Don’t mind me. I’m just recording some data for myself.” He told her nonchalantly. What he didn’t tell her was that the data was _on her_. The girls’ thought process was getting interesting enough to prompt for him to start taking notes. Something about her was different compared to the other bumbling fools of her race, and he wanted to know what it was. “Tell me… why do you have those primitive weapons in your storage cellar?” He finally put his tablet down to look at her while eating more rice.

Nesumi was confused. She didn’t know what he was referring to. Weapons? Storage cellar? Did he mean the basement? “Did you go into the basement?” She asked cocking her head.

“Is that a problem?” He asked, narrowing his eyes.

“No no, I was trying to clarify what you might have meant… Uh.. let’s see… weapons…” Nesumi thought hard for a minute. She really wasn’t allowed to go down there. Her mom forbid it because there was dangerous stuff. “Can you tell me what kind of weapon it was?”

“Spears.” He leaned to the side, supported by an arm.

Nesumi thought some more, something soon coming to mind. “Oh! Hold on just a minute!” She stood and ran upstairs. This would have been game-over table manners if her mom was home but thankfully Zim didn’t know anything about dining etiquette. She ran back down the stairs with a framed photo in hand. “Did the spears look like this?” She held the picture up to him. In the photo was a woman dressed in traditional shrine robes with her hair done up elegantly. In her hands was a meticulously decorated spear. The color of the spear was indiscernible as the photo was black and white.

“Mm hm. That’s it.” He nodded and tried poking the rolled omelettes with his finger, taking one with the chopsticks once he was sure it wouldn’t hurt him.

Nesumi smiled and looked at the photo for herself. “Those spears aren’t really used for fighting. They’re for a more ritualistic and traditional use.” She sat back in her spot at the table.

“Why would you make a weapon and not use it?” He asked feeling truly confused at what kind of ritual would need an unusable weapon.

“Ah, well… The spears belong to the god of this mountain.” She said returning her attention to her food, feeling a bit excited at her double portion of grilled mackerel. Zim froze at the word God. There was something that powerful on this mountain? “Would that be the god in the picture?” He asked cautiously pointing to the photo, trying to think of what he would do if he had to meet it. Previous experiences have made him quite cautious of the things. Nesumi laughed softly to herself.

“No… that’s my Grandmother. She was the shrine maiden of this shrine.” The girl had a sort of sad smile. Zim looked around the room they were sitting in.

“_This_ is a shrine?” Now he was really confused. Shrines were supposed to be elegant and grand, weren’t they? This place was so shabby and minimalistic. Nesumi nodded.

“This is the house part. The back door has an outdoor hallway that leads to the true shrine. Though, it hasn’t been properly taken care of.” She explained. "My family has been taking care of this place for generations, even though there’s no reason to. I like to try and clean it up every once in a while, for Grandma." She added and picked up her chopsticks once again.

“So, a God lives on this mountain?” He asked wearily. Americans were so fond of their god, they refused to even make depictions of it out of fear.

“At least that’s what my Grandma told me.” She added before taking a bite of fish. He thought for a moment. The humans had a lot of Gods in their legends. Zim couldn’t figure out if they went extinct or were completely made up to begin with-- hopefully the latter but he didn’t want to rule out any possibilities.

“Does this God really exist?” His expression was very serious as he asked.

The girl quickly chewed her fish so she could answer without a full mouth. “I dunno. There are some unexplainable things that happened in the legends that seemingly connect to our town's history— also the shrines’ lore is a little disappointing for someone to just make up.”

“What do you mean?” Zim knew humans couldn’t live long enough to keep their history straight. So, legends and religion were something he could normally dismiss as fiction, since their lack of technology and scientific studies long ago prevented them from being able to perform these ‘miracles’ that they love clinging to the idea of. Why, they love their stories so much that they’ve labeled their media with fiction for pretend and nonfiction for everything proven! But a couple tricks of Dib’s were enough to convince him otherwise of the presence of these mythological beings. Unexplainable trinkets with no power source except the beliefs of that big-headed oaf. Not that he would ever admit his minor uneasiness at the strange phenomena.

Nesumi had to take a moment to decide the simplest way to explain this to an alien. “Okay…” She took a deep breath. “A few hundred years ago in what we call the Edo period, our town was a small village and there were lots of wars happening for control of the land around us. Our village priestess, my ancestor I think, prayed up in the mountains for protection from the Gods and her prayer was answered! A benevolent God called Haya’niu-hime-no-kami showed up and promised to protect the village and grant our deceased family members’ spirits safe passage to the other side. But in return the town had to build a shrine and give offerings of food and alcohol AND make a festival for the god. So of course, they did all that stuff; building this shrine named Kisoukai, a name that my family took as their name too. But here’s where things get fishy with actual history-”

Zim was starting to focus a little less. It seems that Nesumi here can ramble.

“There are documents in other towns and cities that say they DID send out _big_ BIG armies to our tiny village to conquer it but none of those armies came back. We’re just a little farming village who can’t protect ourselves… So how would that come about??” Her question pulled Zims attention back to her.

“Uh--”

“It was the God!! There’s no other explanation!! The God made the armies disappear!” She looked very sure of herself.

“So why don’t you take care of the shrine if this God is so powerful?”

Her smug expression fell to a blank one. She picked up her bowl of rice to start eating again. “Because the god left.”

“It… _left_.” He never heard of a legend ending like that before.

“Yeah… But my Grandma was certain that the God would return again someday, so she kept up her work as a shrine maiden. I admired her a lot and didn’t question her choice. Actually, tomorrow was the day of the festival ceremony. We would do it together every year.” There was a sadness to her tone.

“What happened to your Grandmother?” Zim knew what it meant for humans to speak of their elderly in past-tense like that, but he wanted to be certain there wasn’t another adult to watch out for.

“She passed away in her sleep about a year ago.” Her expression was very melancholic. He felt a pang of guilt but caught himself. No. He didn’t have any business feeling remorse for this walking pile of meat and stink. Soon her kind wouldn’t exist. The best thing to do here is keep quiet and highlight his disinterest.

An electronic ringing echoed through the room. Nesumi looked shaken at the abrupt noise. “Oh- Please excuse me a second!” Zim watched her stand and run off into a nearby room next to the stairs that he wasn’t aware even existed because the damn sliding door looked exactly like the rest of the wall. It made him wonder how many other rooms he missed on his scout last night. She shut the door behind her which made Zim anxious. The only reason for her to do that would be to keep something secret from him. Just like that, the ringing stopped, and he could hear Nesumi’s voice answer with a “Hello?”

Inside the room Nesumi found herself suddenly frozen in place at the sound of her Moms angry voice.

“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve called your cell-phone?! Where have you been?!” Mom wasn’t shouting. She was being rather controlled so Nesumi knew there must have been some of her coworkers nearby. Zim got up from his place at the table to listen in on the call from the other side of the door.

Nesumi took a deep breath. There was no easy way of breaking this to her mom. “I… um.. I broke my phone… again.” She practically mumbled. “I accidentally dropped it in the snow while trying to take a picture.”

“You left the house during a blizzard? How reckless must you be Nesumi? It’s this exact kind of behavior that causes those injuries you get.” Nesumi could only stare at the floor as she was scolded. Her back was to the door, so she didn’t notice Zim crack it open to better eavesdrop. “That phone was the 3rd one this year. It was the last one too. I’m not investing any more money for you to throw away recklessly.” Nesumi desperately wanted to tell her mother that it wasn’t her fault. But technically, that wasn’t true. She made the decision to go out into that blizzard, alien or no alien. There was no chance in hell she was going to tell her mom about Zim. That would be a call for the hospital to come and take her away. So she bit her tongue.

“Yes Ma’am.” She said softly.

“And when I get home, we can settle on the severity of your punishment for breaking curfew, breaking the phone, AND endangering yourself the way you did.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Nesumi was used to being scolded regularly. At school and at home her airheaded behavior was quick to get her in trouble. She knew not to talk back, or it would only make more trouble. But she did have that thing she wanted to talk to her mother about. “Hey, Mom… There’s something I really need to tell you…”

“Oh good. There’s more? I don’t think I can take any more bad news, so you’d better think hard about the next thing out of your mouth.”

“Actually… It’s about school.”

"You haven’t been skipping again, have you? Your attendance affects your grade.”

“I… Um. Well, I-I have but—” There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the receiver.

“NESUMI. We’ve gone over this! Your actions represent our family name in that town, and you keep disappointing. Every time you mess up the consequences fall on my shoulders. You make me look bad as a parent; do you know what that does to my reputation in my career?”

“But-but mom.. I—” Nesumi’s voice was wavering. The familiar sting of tears building in her eyes was affecting her vision. She needed to get through to her, she had to.

“I don’t want to hear your excuses! I’ve heard it all before! “I hurt my ankle on the stairs! I have a fever!” It gets old, Nesumi.” On her Moms end a faraway female voice says something indiscernible “Alright, I’ll be there soon-- Listen, I have a meeting coming up, so I’ll call you later to talk about how we’ll correct your behavioral problems.”

“Please don’t hang up!! Mom I---” Her pleas were met with a dial tone. Nesumi fell to her knees with the phone still pressed to her cheek. “...talk to you…” She sat there holding her breath until the sobs that wanted to break through subsided.

On the other side of the door Zim looked on with confusion. That was her parental unit? He couldn’t make any comparisons to the mothers he’s seen so far. Mom’s always coddled their horrible, disgusting children. This display was like a commanding officer talking down to a cadet. Like how his commanding officers talked to him.

Nesumi stood up clenching her fists with a sniffle. She let her anger get the best of her again, and dropped the receiver, opting to grab the charging dock and pulling it with a burst of strength. The wires that were connected ripped from the wall, taking a few chips and pieces of drywall with it. In this moment Nesumi could only think about how she was always alone. She never complained about anything. Just this once she had something to say, something important, and was brushed aside like usual. Why did she need to have so much respect when her mother rarely did so for her? It isn’t fair! So, she blindly threw the machine, and halted at the sound of glass breaking. Her head snapped up. She’d tossed the answering machine through the window, which was now broken. The snow that had piled up so high fell generously through the hole and scattered about the floor, mixed with invisible shards of glass.

Zim didn’t know how to react. He figured that this would be a point in which someone who wasn’t eavesdropping would open the door to investigate that loud noise, so he did that. Nesumi heard the sound of the wood sliding and panicked on instinct. She quickly turned towards the door while taking a step back, only briefly catching a glimpse of Zim-- her foot landing on a particularly large shard of glass angled straight up thanks to the support of the snow. It stabbed right into the center of her foot. Pain shot up through her whole leg; she cried out and lifted pressure off the appendage immediately, losing her balance in the process. As she fell she closed her eyes, preparing to feel the cold and painful fate of the snowy glass that littered the area of the floor she was about to impact.

Only a moment passed, and she felt the cold. However, she felt no new pain. She could feel herself… hanging? There was a cold pressure coiling all around her waist. Upon opening her eyes, she found herself in the living room, being set to stand on the floor by a segmented robotic arm(?) that was extending from behind Zims’ back. He had caught her. As he started moving towards her Nes looked back towards the room that she just came from, a substantial amount of her own blood was trailing from inside all the way to her. That did it. Her vision became blurry and mixed with a slew of swirling black, she could feel herself collapsing under her own weight; and again, she was caught by something.

“Stop doing that!” Zims' voice came through the blackness. It was close. Being gingerly set onto the ground she could feel small clawed fingers release her upper arm. He caught her on his own? Nesumi looked up towards where she felt the voice most came from, feeling a mess of tears leaving her eyes.

As Zim looked down at her truly distraught face he could tell that her feelings of fear last night weren’t nearly as strong as he initially thought. ‘So, she’s human after all.’ Although, he felt a little disappointed that her own mother was the one to spark this kind of reaction instead of him. Is that just how scary that person was? Or is there more to this place than he originally thought? The metallic stench of her blood was starting to get to him. Human meat was one of his allergies, too. Any blood from these Earth creatures burned him all the same, and here it was pooling around her heel. She did a good job slicing through her artery. “You’re bleeding.” He stated flatly while pulling out a small tube from his pak. This stuff was used for sealing up deep cuts and speeding up the reproduction of cells while also acting as an antibody. Perfect for quick repairs after being shot by a laser, or this. Nesumi let her head drop and wiped her eyes with her sleeve, letting out a dry sob. “What’s wrong?” He asked impatiently. Even if her sniveling was beginning to get on his nerves there shouldn’t be a reason for him to show any interest in her suffering. Yet here he was, about to help heal her before she bled out and died. Perhaps this is all so he could pay her back. She saved his life, so he saves hers, debt repaid. Quick and easy solve! Then he doesn’t have to be so invested.

“I’m sorry…” Nesumi breathes out weakly. “I can’t look at too much blood… Or my vision goes away…”

Zim never heard of that. If it was her own blood she looked at then she was probably just dying every time she’d seen it, like right now. “Do you want help?” He asked. She nodded dryly. Somehow, he felt this wasn’t the first time she’s experienced this. “Where’s your medical kit?” She sat quietly for a few seconds before answering.

“Upstairs, under the bathroom sink.” She felt herself losing hearing now to. This was bad. Nesumi couldn’t tell if she was bleeding out or if she was just overreacting. She felt horrible for putting Zim in this situation. It was really kind of him to help her though. If he was a heartless cold-blooded alien like he played himself up to be then he’d probably be leaving her to die here. Or rather, he would have let her fall into the glass and snow. ‘So, he has a heart after all.’ the corner of her mouth turned up ever so slightly at the thought. Then, out of nowhere her leg was grabbed up by the ankle and the glass shard was ungraciously ripped from her foot. She cried out at the rough treatment of her wound before feeling something... replace the shard? He was injecting her with something cold! “W-WHAT ARE YO-” The surprise of the situation momentarily knocked her out of the depressed emotional state. Soon her vision was coming back to her and she could see a blurry outline of Zim kneeling and putting something away into his Pak.

He examined how his healing liniment was working with her muscles, holding her calf and using a claw to peer further into the wound to ensure the medicine made it to the burst artery. It was healing just fine. Nesumi looked down and saw her skirt had riled up to the tops of her thighs. With the position he had her in… he could probably see her-- Nesumi instinctively kicked him away and pulled her skirt back down, keeping her injured leg extended. Zim fell backwards with a “oof” before shooting back up angrily. “WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?”

“WATCH THE SKIRT!! YOU CAN’T JUST PULL A GIRLS SKIRT UP LIKE THAT!!” She screamed; her face felt hot. So what if he was an alien? A girl's undergarments are to be kept private from everyone! Even the extraterrestrial!

Zim clenched his fists and pointed at her skirt with a temper. “IT RODE UP ON ITS OWN! Trust me when I say I have NO INTEREST in seeing whatever **putrid** mess of anatomy you haven’t already shown me.” He yelled at her, completely thrown for a loop. He never thought she would have actually hit him. Her underwear was crossing the line? Not the threats, not the insults or slander. But her worthless undergarments?

“That’s so mean!! How would you feel if YOU were exposed like that? Also!!! WHAT DID YOU INJECT ME WITH!?!” Keeping one hand on the middle of her skirt she turned the bottom of her foot to face her so she could see the injury without thinking. The sight of fresh blood dripping from her heel and the open flesh overflowing with some weird purple goo was enough to make her dizzy all over again. She caught herself with her arm and leaned to her side as the room spun.

Zim gaped as he watched her. “_Why_ would you look at it if it makes you-- Whatever! I didn’t inject you with anything! I put a healing ointment in the cut so it could heal your busted blood vessel! You should be groveling at Zim’s feet! THANK ME.” Nesumi clenched her eyes shut and put her hand over her mouth, gagging as she nearly fainted at the mental image of her blood vessels.

“Z-ZIM should’ve _warned_ me before-- before ripping glass from my foot like that!!” Nesumi was just the right amount of distressed and feint to let any words loose from her mouth without filter.

Zim growled under his breath. “I _did_. You didn’t _say_ anything.” The girl opened her eyes and looked at him. He was glaring at her, but didn’t feel like she cared this time. At least until she looked down at her palm which laid in her lap, and sniffled. He knew this behavior was akin to emotional distress in humans. He’d seen it on the drama shows minimoose liked to watch, as well as seen it a few times with kids breaking out into a fight on the playground. Younger humans… lack control. He did too, yet here he felt in control. Right now, he was the one in control. She was vulnerable and he was powerful. For some reason though, he wanted to know what it was about her mother that made her this way. Was she angry? Scared? “Hey. Why are you crying?”

Nesumi didn’t want to discuss that with anyone but her mom. Something like that… you can’t just tell someone. An alien wouldn’t understand anyways. Her answer came naturally. “Because I hurt myself just now...” An excuse the girl frequently used when caught crying after school.

Zim narrowed his glare. That was a lie. He saw her crying before she busted that window. It was something about her mother. “You’re lying.” He hissed. He hated when he was lied to. It bothered him so much. “Don’t lie to me, she-filth!”

Nesumi felt something inside herself snap. Why did he have to be so condescending? What gave him the right to walk all over her and demand every detail of her life while he was a complete mystery! The same ‘screw it’ attitude that pushed her to go out into the snowstorm reared its head again and she bitterly spoke her mind, something she’s never done to another living person. “Why should I tell you that when you won’t even tell me what you’re doing on Earth in the first place.” She said in a low voice, slowly raising her eyes to look at him through her messy bangs. Zim recoiled. This is a completely different person from the one this morning, from the one last night. Those eyes reminded him of Dib. The calculating gaze that was equal enough in intelligence to best him. Were they about to fight? Did she have a plan this whole time? Another auspicious champion of her race? He wasn’t about to have that.

“That’s none of your business!!” He yelled, staying cautious of her posture.

“The same goes for what’s happening with me.” She mumbled and brushed some stray hairs from her face, dropping her gaze to the floor. Zim wanted to refute. He wanted to yell but she didn’t owe him anything right now, and he didn’t owe her anymore. He reminded himself that he didn’t care, because he wasn’t supposed to care. So he stayed quiet. There was no point to fighting here anyway. They both sat there in an uncomfortable silence, feeling the intensity of the others’ presence.

The first to speak up after a while was Nesumi. “...I’m sorry.” She stood up impassively. Zim furrowed his brows, he knew the wound wasn’t completely shut yet. It had to hurt. Giving him an empty smile without looking at him she bowed. “You did a good job healing it. Thank you. Please excuse me.” Without another word she went upstairs. Zim looked at the blood trailing from that office room. It really stunk, but it wasn’t his job to clean up after her. He left it, opting to sit back down and keep eating the breakfast that she made.

Zim spent the rest of the day watching TV. Nesumi never came back downstairs. She wasn’t dead or anything. He used his scanner to check on her condition every hour or so, never having to leave his spot at the table. She sat up there, looking at some rectangle, not that he could properly see since the image it projected was just an infrared outline of her body. He tapped the table lightly while staring blankly at the flashing screen. The breakfast dishes were mostly bare, except the meats and soup. Hell, he even went and drank the milk tea that she was getting all excited over. It wasn’t bad. A little bitter. It was all starting to smell though. Even with the distracting stink and the TV, the scene from six hours ago kept replaying in his head despite his desperate attempts at repressing the memory. Her cold eyes. That look of pain she had. It drove him crazy trying to think of what could’ve caused it. He wanted to know. She was so happy-go-lucky until that point it was annoying. Or was this how she normally acted? All mopey and distant. It was better when she was happy, annoying or not. At least then she was serving him snacks and only being slightly bothersome. Now it annoyed him that she wasn’t here to clean up. That was it right? Only he couldn’t figure out why he felt so strongly about it. He didn’t particularly care for the girl. His debt was repaid. So why was there still this lingering feeling of guilt? Every time he thought back to that moment it grew in his gut, and he hated it.

There wasn’t much he could do for her anyways. If the only thing that would get her to talk was compromising his job title of planetary invader, then it couldn’t be helped. He wasn’t spilling that secret again after being chased around the city by Dib the first time he gave it up so easily. The only reason she treated him so nicely now was because he was acting the part of a kind alien (If that’s what you can call it.) and if it was any other way he’d be kicked out of the house into the hazardous snow-stuff. Just thinking of that made him feel even more guilt. Lying was part of his job yet he kept getting these _stupid_ feelings over it. Pulling out his tablet he grumbled and put another item on his to-do list: Run a self-diagnostic after fixing the base computer. If he couldn’t distract himself then he needed to go to the source of the problem. To go yell at Nesumi and have her clean up this mess and quit moping around all day. He turned the TV off while standing up and headed towards the stairs with his hands clenched into fists, taking one quick glance at the mess. Her blood dried up in the straw mat that laid over the floor. The table was cluttered with dirty dishes and the fire burned half as brilliantly as it did when Nesumi first started it. Quietly he ascended the stairs towards her room and stopped just outside the door. He could see through the hole he made in it earlier.

Inside the room Nesumi sat on the windowsill. Her injured foot sat outside buried in the pile of snow that built on the roof, the other one pressed against the edge of the sill as she hugged her knee looking out at the clear sky. The sun was already setting, and the sky was a mix of yellow and orange. He opened the door properly this time, making his presence known to her. She didn’t acknowledge him. Instead, for a couple seconds she looked down at a colored photo of an old woman, most likely her grandmother; before talking to him.

“You know… around this time last year, we were practicing the kagura dance together for the ceremony. My grandmother did my hair with my favorite hanakanzashi. Even if they weren’t the ones supposed to be for that ritual, she told me “The god won’t mind, as long as you’re happy.”” Zim cocked an eye. He didn’t know what that hanaka-thing was or the kagura dance she spoke of. Stepping a bit closer he saw that the whites of her eyes were pink. Was she up here crying the whole time? Or perhaps the cold air was irritating her eyes? No, humans blink before they dry out, so it had to be from crying. He looked at the picture, releasing his fist without realizing.

“Your grandma… you two were…” He tried to think of how to phrase the question. “...well-bonded?”

Nesumi chuckled lightly to herself. “Yeah… We were close.” Zim mentally noted her phrasing. ‘Close.’

A cold breeze fluttered through the open window, wafting her hair gently. She returned her gaze outside towards the wind and setting sun, to keep stray hairs flowing in the same direction as the rest of her locks. Zim stared at her. In this moment… something felt strange. He came in here angry with her, right? To yell at her to go clean up. Instead he was leaning more towards wanting to help her now. His experience with Gir must really be starting to affect him. ‘Yelling doesn’t work well anyways…’ He thought to himself with an audible huff.

“Hey…” He began, hoping the rest of the sentence he wanted to say would come to him, but he couldn't think of how to say it.

Nesumi turned her head towards him slightly, “Yes?”

He straightened up, crossing his arms and looking away from her. “Do you want to do that ritual of yours? I can try to… You know… Help.”  
She sat up and turned towards him all the way. Though the sunset behind her softly shaded her face, he could see a soft, forgiving smile that made all his anger and guilt from before melt away. It turned into a full-blown grin as she gave him an enthusiastic nod.  
“Yes!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hey hey who wants a little lesson in Japanese Culture?  
Kagura Dance: That traditional dance preformed by Japanese priests and priestesses for all sorts of ritualistic (mostly purification) reasons.  
Live-in shrines: These tend to be more rare than your common shrine, but they DO exist. Usually in rural areas.  
Hanakanzashi: Those really pretty hair ornaments styled after flowers. Look them up to see some lovely examples! They aren't just worn by shrine maidens, but can be worn by anyone! 
> 
> Note NOte:  
I thought, "this shrine lore is a little too serious/based on actual lore for an invader zim fanfic. What would fix that? Why, the gods' a deadbeat and just straight up left!" It made me giggle to myself In Real Life™️ as I laid in bed thinking of this fic because I am a #loser. If the God is based on an oc of mine does that make it offensive? Noragami says no. Your god can be as bastard as you want with a little help and some magic IDGAF dust. 
> 
> Anyway, did you like the chapter? Gimme a comment below to let me know what you think! See a spelling or grammar mistak? <--- Tell me about that stuff too! Hate how I wrote something and have constructive criticism? I'm down for some pro tips and advice!


	4. Nothing Fun Happens.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, you needs some nice time to chill and have fun. Which is what most of this chapter is about! Maybe a little drama and questionable undertones here and there. But overall, emotional connecting.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo boy did I have fun writing this chapter. This is probably the most self-indulgent part of this fic. Sprinkled in some banter and whatnot.  
So, Kagura dances can vary big time. In order to make up for my lack of knowledge I made it pretty vague so you can use your imaginations for that part.  
Also, I hope you enjoy!

The full moon shone brightly, illuminating the mountain gently while making the melting snow glisten and sparkle with a silvery-blue hue. It was about 10:30pm on the night of the purification ceremony and the isolated Kisoukai house brightened the surrounding woods with all its lights turned on. Up on the second floor, Nesumi’s two windows were wide open. Though the outside air was still cold, it was much less frigid than just a day or two ago. On the edge of Nesumi’s bed sat Zim, a laptop at his side with instructions on how to tie a shrine maidens’ hair with a washi ribbon. Nesumi was sitting on the floor in front of him, back facing him while looking through a case with all the hana kanzashi she could possibly wear for the ritual. Zim was struggling to get her hair tied the way the picture-instructions told him to. His claws kept getting stuck in strands of her hair. 

“_WHY _DIDN’T YOU JUST LEARN TO DO THIS YOURSELF!?!?” He yelled out of frustration, using his elbow to scroll down the website since his hands were preoccupied.

“Because it’s hard! Besides, my grandma always offered to do it for me, so I never even had to ask.” She replied calmly at his outburst with a huge smile on her face. She was elated, being able to dress up and do the ceremony one last time. Without her grandmother around and her mom denouncing their work as priestesses Nesumi thought that she would never be able to do this again. Yet here she was, getting prepared with an alien of all things. Informal as this would be, she was still happy to honor the memory of her grandma and the shrine. 

Zim grumbled to himself while trying to figure out what the last bit of instructions were telling him to do. None of the characters made sense to him except the numbers. The pictures and gifs were all he could go off of, and it was getting to be frustrating trying to catch every small detail he could glean from just a few seconds of footage. Not to mention the occasional knot and tangle in her hair making it all that more difficult. 

“Are you _certain _that your hair isn’t dirty??” Just touching it made him feel like he was going to contract a disease. The lice incident was a big eye-opener for him in understanding exactly how unhygienic humans of this age could be. 

Nesumi puffed her cheeks out, tired of hearing this question every time he encountered a tangle. “Yes! If it were dirty, then it would be greasy!! It’s _not _greasy.” She crossed her arms. 

He scoffed to himself. “How did you primates even evolve to grow your fur out like this??? What was the evolutionary goal?!” 

“We haven’t covered human evolution in school yet, so I can’t answer that. You hacked into my mom’s computer, just look it up later!” She pointed her thumb over her shoulder at the laptop. The previous night, Nesumi was trying to decipher from that old black and white photo how to tie her hair up. Ultimately deciding that it wasn’t going to get done with a defeated look. Zim asked her if there were any other ways of finding out. The laptop was brought up, and even without a password Zim managed to get in, calling the sign in password ‘primitive’ and ‘the worst excuse for a security measure he’d ever seen.’ It was amazing to the technologically handicapped Nesumi. 

“RrrrAGH! FINE. DONE.” He dropped her hair and put his hands up, having successfully tied it after trying for around 15 minutes. Nesumi stood up and looked at herself in the mirror, smiling gleefully at his work. 

“You did a really good job! It looks great!” She did a quick spin to see how it held up. It was done perfectly. Zim grunted in response and scrubbed his hands with some solution from his pak that Nesumi could only assume was his version of hand sanitizer. “I told you my hair _isn’t _dirty!” She whined exasperatedly. 

“Better safe than diseased.” He stated, finding her aggravated reactions mildly amusing, though not outwardly showing it.

“Diseased!?” 

“Can we hurry this up already!? You’ve been preparing for _hours_ and Zim has no patience left for these meaningless ‘dressing’ preparations.” He stood up and put his bottle of cleaning solution back into his pak. 

“Okay, _okay_. Geez. I thought it was fun hanging out today…” On top of the small tatami table there in her room the girl had put two sets of miko outfits. Unsurprisingly, since the shrine’s workers over the past few centuries have only been female, they only had uniforms for women. Luckily, they had two in Nesumi and Zim’s sizes. “It’s _your_ turn to get dressed.” she said while grabbing the clothes and holding them to his chest. He looked down, scowled and snatched the outfit.

“Fine. How do you put this on?” 

Nesumi helped him change, then shooed him out of the room so she could put on her set. Zim refused to take off his invader uniform without explaining why, so the miko outfit went over it. In the bathroom he looked over himself and frowned. Why did these clothes need so much excess fabric? They were too loose and inefficient. Not to mention his pak was covered and inaccessible. Well, without shredding the clothes at least. Stepping back out into the hallway he leaned against the wall while waiting on Nes. He occasionally thought about what compelled him to do all of this for some measly human. Surely, this wasn’t worth the habitat getting cleaned and having himself catered to. Yet, somehow it felt right-- and he knew it wasn’t. Not by a long shot for invader standards. By Irken standards she’d already be dead for witnessing him out of disguise and understanding it, even despite saving him. He lightly kicked at a rug on the floor. It wouldn’t do much harm leaving her be. It’s not like she’s a threat… unless she’s frightened with a stick in her hand or you happen to see under her skirt. Other than those two things that are more than likely never to happen again; she’s harmless. He looked at the clock on the wall. 10:45. Why was she taking so damn long?

“NES. HURRY UP ALREADY.” He shouted while looking up at the ceiling. Her bedroom door flew open.

“Zim, Zim!! Will you tell me which one you like better?? I can’t decide…” She was all dressed up in her uniform and beckoned him into the room again excitedly, holding some of her flowery hair pieces. He slouched and growled while walking back into her room. This was getting ridiculous. He’d heard jokes of girls taking a long time getting ready for events, now he was witnessing it. Even if this whole thing was unbearably boring, he didn’t plan on saying anything to her. It was making her happy to spend the day with him and even though it was humiliating to go along with every one of these ‘customs’ of hers, it’s not like there was anything better for him to do right now anyways. “Which one, which one? The pink one has all these petals hanging from it but this blue one is all shimmery and looks like a bouquet!” 

“This… This is why you called me back in here?” He groaned and looked at the accessories. She was practically overflowing with excitement as she stood there holding them out for him to see. Without a word he pointed at the pink one and sat back down on the bed.

“Pink? Ohhh you probably like pink a lot. After all, your clothes are all pink.” She said looking over the pin and holding it up to her hair, stepping in front of the mirror on her wall. “But then I would wanna pair it with something red or white…” And without missing a beat, she was looking through her options again. Zim sighed impatiently before glancing at the laptop. Might as well try looking up why she has hair in the first place to pass the time. “Ooh, the white ones are shiny too! Oh, hey Zim… Do you remember all of the steps for the kagura dance?” 

“Probably not.” He responded without really paying attention. He found an online English keyboard to click to type then copy and paste his search with. 

“That’s okay. We’ll go slowly and you can copy my movements the best you can.” She’s just finished putting the two kanzashi in place. 

“Okay. Fine. Hey, what’s pubic hair?” He asked and turned the laptop to face her with an article pulled up titled _“Human Evolution: Why Only Some Hair?”_ Nesumi stiffened and looked at him in horror. Her face flushed beet red. 

“H-HOLD ON, YOU CAN’T JUST ASK SOMETHING LIKE THAT!!” Her hands waved frantically.

“Why not!?!” His frustration built at her stubbornness to release information to him after having to do all of this junk with her.

“Because- If-- It’s not as if I can… LOOK IT UP ON YOUR OWN. It’s too embarrassing!!” Nes crossed her arms defensively and turned away from him.

Zim exasperatedly rolled his head back with an annoyed groan. Everything with her was so unnecessarily difficult for the pettiest reasons. However, the incident where she cried in her room after a heated confrontation made him realize that pushing her too far is completely possible, and he would like to avoid that. Getting kicked across the room wasn’t enjoyable, and judging by her expression at the time, she would rather avoid it as well. So here he was, respecting her boundaries and looking up this stupid thing by himse- _ohwhatinthehellisthis. _Zims’ expression changed to one of absolute disgust in an instant. 

“SEE?! I can’t just explain something like that!!!” She yelled in an ‘I told you so’-like tone. Ever since the fight yesterday she’s been a lot less formal with Zim. It’s almost as if when she spoke her mind during that fight it broke a boundary that was keeping them distant. Nes felt like she could speak a little more openly to him. Even Zim was initiating conversation every once in a while, asking questions about the shrine, ritual, town, and ranting about the plot holes in some of the anime that came on TV. He really seemed to enjoy watching Code Geass during lunch and trash talking it. It was fun to listen to his reasoning and what upgrades he would make to the mechs. The stories gave her a little more insight to what Zim was really like-- and he was more or less a little destructive. But that didn’t matter to her. Most boys exhibit destructive behavior anyhow. Besides, Zim was also allowing her to make physical contact! It was only his sleeves but still, progress is progress! 

Zim gagged while shutting the laptop. He needed to forget that mental image ASAP. “Can we just go do this thing already? Preferably before I vomit.” Nesumi silently nodded and walked with him down the stairs. After offering to do this ritual she got herself in gear and cleaned up the whole living room faster than he thought possible. A speed cleaner if you will. She’d told him that it was a skill she built up from procrastinating her chores and needing to get them all done 5 minutes before her mom got home. Basically, lying to her face about it. Zim was made a little suspicious of that lying part. Just how good of a liar was she?

With a quick stop into the kitchen to grab the offerings of rice balls and sake, they quietly made their way towards the back of the house. Nes pulled open a sliding door that since before today, Zim had no idea existed. Much like the office with the now-broken window (which they put a blanket over), the door looked exactly like the adjacent walls and there was no indication that a room sat behind it. Well-- this one didn’t exactly have a room. Behind this door was a hallway wrapping around the side of the house with a wall of glass panes built in the same style as the paper walls. The snow melted enough to give them partial view of the sky. Directly across the hall was another sliding door, which led outside to a porch-like walkway surrounded by railing. This morning Nesumi woke up and came running downstairs (and smashed her face against the wall at the end of them, acting as if it didn’t even phase her) full of vigor and determination to clear that walkway of all the snow that blocked their path to the shrine; and she was successful! It was completely cleared by lunch. She even went back to clear around the shrine’s porch. Of course, she looked like a wreck afterwards, but she took a bath in order to get ready for the ritual. Zim was amazed she hadn’t tuckered herself out by now. Even he would be exhausted, and he doesn’t even need sleep. 

“I want you to show me every room in this house later.” He told her glancing down the hallway at what he could only assume to be another room he didn’t get to look through. 

“Okay, we can do it after this.” She said stepping outside into the cool air. The snow was low enough to see around the surrounding area. Zim stopped to look around, noting the woods and height of the mountain. If her house was this high up, then was the air thinner? He leaned over the railing to try and see any indication of where his ship may have landed. 

Nesumi leaned over with him. “I know where your ship is. I can show you the way once the snow melts a little more.” She points to a spot higher up the mountain. “Over there I think.”

“You_ think?_” If it weren’t for his ship being completely totaled and leaving him no signals to trace, he wouldn’t need her to lead the way. But unfortunately, her word was all he had to go on.

“I drew you a map you know. Didn’t you look at it?” She started walking towards the shrine again. He took one last glance up the mountain before following behind.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” 

She pretended to draw on her hand as she explained her thought process. “I drew it up on a piece of paper with a few other drawings so we wouldn’t have a misunderstanding in case you couldn’t speak Japanese.” 

“Japanese? So, I’m in Japa?” Why didn’t he ask this earlier? Knowing what country he was in could’ve been important.

Nesumi clapped her hands together, thrilled at his ability to guess things so well. “Close! We’re in Japan!” 

“Japan... And as for your ‘_Map’_. It was horrible, so I tossed it in the fire with those other scribbles.”

“What?? I thought they were pretty good…” Nesumi slid open the shrine doors for him and got to work preparing the altar with incense and offerings, leaving a box of tri-colored dango off to the side.

“A Yogwhy of the Sulposs Sector could draw better in its 2nd stage of pupa, and they don’t even have arms.” He examined a hanging scroll depicting art of the God, copying the depicted pose and hiding his hands inside his sleeves. It was kinda comfy.

Nesumi pointed at him. “MEAN!! I don’t know what all that is you just said, but I know it’s MEAN!!” 

Zim turned to face her, watching her get everything set up. “I couldn’t make out what those drawings were, they were so terrible.” 

She grabbed two staffs decorated with bells on the ends and handed him both. “You really don’t have trouble speaking your mind, huh Zim?”

“When I pummel around the foliage then people continue to annoy me.” He examined the staffs, minorly impressed at the delicate metal-working and engravings along the handles. Nesumi snickered at his phrasing of ‘beat around the bush’.

“What’s so funny?” He squinted at her.

“Nothing~!” 

“DON’T LIE TO ME!” He pointed at her dramatically for effect, causing the twelve bells on the end of the staff to ring gently. 

“The way you phrase things is interesting to me.” By now Nesumi has figured out that Zim had to have been on Earth for a while prior to the crash. Especially with him using some of the common phrases that he butchered, and some easy-to-miss references he’s made to western media. She began opening all the shrine doors, exposing them to the light of the full moon. On the front porch were two large stone lanterns sitting at either side of the entrance. Using some pre-chopped logs they stored in the shrine she lit them up along with a few other smaller lanterns around the room. Now everything was set up. “Are you ready?” She took back one of the staffs, walked up to the altar and looked back at him.

Zim pulled at the collar of the miko clothes. “Did I not prepare enough already?” 

“No, you’re fine. Just wanted to make sure.” She kneeled down and bowed respectfully at the altar. Zim stood by and watched, prompting Nes to look at him over her shoulder. “Come on. You have to do this too!” She said patting the spot on the floor next to her.

“_Why.” _He didn’t budge. 

“Because you’re performing with me. It’s customary!” 

He reinforced his stubborn opposition. “ZIM DOES NOT BOW FOR ANYONE!!” 

Nesumi hummed to herself in thought, coming up with something quickly. “Think about it like this; the god isn’t even here so technically you _aren’t _bowing for anyone!” Her suggestion was met with silence, and he still refused to even step over. “Come ooonnnn! I promise I won’t tell anyone you did it.” She sat up to properly talk to him.

He crossed his arms and looked down pensively. “You promise?” 

“Yes.” She reassured, but he still looked hesitant. So, she threw in a little more convincing. “In fact… I’m so confident that I won’t break this promise; you can kill me if I do.” She put her hands on her hips with a confident nod while saying this. Zim snapped his head up to look at her. That was completely out of nowhere. Is she that confident in herself? Well… It worked. If she was passionate enough to put her own life on the line, then he couldn’t say no. Actually, he really could. But they came this far so he might as well indulge her to the very end. Silently, he walked over to the spot next to her and kneeled. He didn’t feel quite right. Something about her offering to die rubbed him the wrong way. But that was something to think about later.

Nesumi bowed first, and Zim followed shortly after. She smiled to herself before beginning the prayer. “Humbling myself respectfully, honoring the great gods of purification to Seoritsu-hime-no-kami, Haya’Akitsu-hime-no-kami, Ibukidonushi-no-kami, and Hayasasura-hime-no-kami, I begin my prayer.”

Zim slightly turned his head towards her. “Do I have to say all that too?” he whispered. She shook her head in response and he continued his bowing. 

“Haya’niu-hime-no-kami.” She sat up straight and clapped her hands together while bowing her head. He followed suit, putting his hands together but chose not to bow his head. Nesumi continued on, deciding to pick her battles. “You may not be able to hear me, you may not exist anymore, but if my voice reaches you, I hope you would listen kindly. My name is Kisoukai Nesumi. I’m afraid that I am the last miko in my family lineage for your shrine. The reasons and history behind my tasks here are a mystery to me. Thankfully, I have found someone kind to do the ritual with me one last time.” Zim quirked an eye at being called ‘kind.’ That was a first for him. “It might not be the best, as we are both inexperienced, but I hope it pleases you. Here we go!” She jumped to her feet and stood at the ready. Zim copied, only confidently knowing the beginning steps to the dance.

Nesumi was the first to start. Her movements were slow and smooth. Not a bell on the staff rang unless she allowed for it. Her voice as she sang her prayer never wavered. Zim carefully and quietly followed along with her flow but found it difficult not to accidentally ring the bells. The girl’s feet methodically traced the floor. Her every step was perfect, every turn seemed quick yet gentle, and her staff bells soon began to harmonize with Zims as he got a hold on how to transition each step. 

It was hard to believe that such a clumsy, air-headed girl like her could become so graceful, even if just for a short time as this. Whatever it was about this ceremony awoke something from deep within her. She remembered her grandmother saying this was the instinct of a priestess; that the duties of a shrine maiden would one day fall on her shoulders, and when the day came for the young girl to exercise her holy abilities, she would execute it flawlessly. Though Nesumi happened to be very young at that time and the older she got, the less she could believe in such miracles. But still, she danced. Tonight, she danced with a passion that she never held before. Because tonight would be the last time she could do this, and she wanted for grandma to know that she could rest peacefully and pass on with confidence in her granddaughter. 

It didn’t take Zim long to notice the patterns of the dance and sync up his movements with Nesumi’s. Though his version wasn’t nearly as well-practiced as hers, he wasn’t hesitating anymore. He could feel himself relaxing at the serenity of it all. The bells, the gentle night air, and Nesumi’s voice softly singing to this supposed godly entity. It felt pure. But, before he even realized it fully, the dance came to an end. They stood perfectly symmetrical to each other, facing the altar while stopped on the final pose. The fires seemed to crackle and roar a little louder for but a brief moment. Nesumi looked at him with an appreciative and joyous expression. He furrowed his brow and relaxed his pose. “What?” 

“You did amazingly!” She took the staff from him and placed both back on their stands. 

He crossed his arms and nonchalantly looked away towards nothing in particular. “It got repetitive towards the end so naturally it became easier to follow along…” It was a little embarrassing to try and explain himself while she stood right in front of him staring all over excited and proud-like. “STOP THAT!” He got defensive real fast. She reached out and lightly tugged his sleeve pointing towards the front porch. 

“Let’s eat some dango.” 

“... Fine.” 

Nes brought out some pillows and unboxed the sweet snacks, even running back inside momentarily to make them some milk tea. They sat snacking next to the fires and looking out over the valley, seeing the last lights of the village go out. Zim found it so tiny compared to the city he currently lived in, constantly blaring lights and noises, no matter the time of day. “Your town is pathetic.” He told her before taking a bite of the chewy treat. 

She was blowing on her tea. “You think so? My mom says the same thing.” 

“It’s so small and inefficiently laid out. Where’s your school? Or a hospital? All I can see is housing and a few dingey shops.” He told her squinting down at the village.

Nesumi gripped her cup tightly while holding in her violent urge to start relentlessly questioning him on how he could possibly see that from all the way up here, especially with how dark it currently was. After all, she promised not to bother him about his anatomy. Instead she took a quick drink and pointed out towards the far side of town, where the crescent shape of the surrounding hills fell even with the rest of the valley. “Over that way is a bridge connecting this area to the rest of town. It’s where everything fundamental is. Well, except for a hospital. The only one around this area is in the next town over, but we do have a clinic… Not that it’s the same thing.”

Zim leaned forward a bit while trying his tea as well, narrowing his eyes again. “Oh yeah… There’s the bridge.” Nes bit her cheek and shifted her weight. Damn him, being so mysterious and interesting. Was his species a carnivorous predator? No… No, he hates meat. In fact, he opts to eat sugary foods more than anything. His vision shouldn’t be for hunting prey. Maybe locating food was hard and they evolved for spotting small fruits from far away? She tapped her finger on her cup while drinking, mulling over the possibilities of his home planets’ terrain and what else evolution may have done for him as a species. Technologically advanced cities? Medically installed ocular improvements? Underground caverns with complex colonies? Claws for climbing? What did his antenna even do? 

Meanwhile, Zim was trying to get her attention, but she seemed to be off in la-la land trying to drink from a now-empty cup. “Nes.” He waved his hand at her, but she didn’t respond. “Filth-child!” He spoke a little louder, still no response. “**NESUMI!!!**” He yelled this time. Nes jumped with a shout and tossed her cup up in the air unintentionally. They both watched it plop into the snow far out of reach from the porch. 

“My teaaaaa…” She whined while slumping over. 

“There wasn’t any _tea _left in it.” Zim snidely remarked finishing off his portion of dango. She pouted and looked at him. 

“What did you need?” 

“I wanted to know how much the snow needs to melt before we can look for my ship.” He sat leaning back on his arms looking up at the sky. 

“Oh… I think we’ll be able to go by tomorrow afternoon. The Weather Channel forecast warmer temperatures so it should melt a whole lot with the sun out. It’s such a clear night, so I doubt there’ll be any thick clouds.” She said grabbing her last stick of dango. 

“Clear skies…” He repeated to himself, feeling as though he’s forgetting something important related to the weather. “Clear… _Skieeeeessss_…” He squinted while drinking some more tea, hoping to recall whatever he was trying to remember. If only he had Gir here to… He spit out his drink. Nesumi yiped and looked at him shocked. He forgot to call Gir after the blizzard cleared up. Zim stood and took the miko outfit off frantically, reaching into his pak once it was completely accessible and grabbed his communicator. The holographic screen came up and gave him the connecting window. Nesumi watched incredulously, placing her rice snack back into the box. 

Zim impatiently watched the screen, feeling a rush of relief hit him when the image finally connected him to his little robot servant, who was sitting on the floor in his base. “HI MASTER!!!” He screeched in that ear-piercing voice he always uses when he got excited. Nesumi slowly stood up, completely mesmerized at the display in front of her. 

“GIR! Gir I need you to send out the recovery vehicle to my coordinates right now.” He spoke with a sort of panicked tone desperately hoping that somehow, he would be able to return to his base sooner than he originally thought. 

“Sorry! I can’t do that right now master! After you left through the roof it got allll dark an’ broken in here.” The little machine smiled enthusiastically at this detrimental circumstance. Zim growled in frustration, feeling himself tense again at the reality of the situation he was currently in. 

“Where’s Dib.” He said in a low, terse tone. 

Gir giggled, unphased at his master's sudden change in attitude. “Dibs down in the computer room breakin’ stuff open and gettin’ reaaal squirrely in the walls! Said he’s-a gon put the TV back on and steal up all of your alien-y, tech-y secrets and stuff!” He finished his report by downing whatever was left in a bag of chips he had sitting next to him. “Say, why we speakin’ Japanese right now master?” 

Zim pinched where the bridge of his nose would be. “I’ve crash-landed in Japan, so my translator has me speaking it by default. Gir listen to me this is important; I need you to remove Dib from the base. Right. Now. Injure him so he can’t come back inside and leave him in the street somewhere dirty, so people think he’s a hobo.” Out of camera shot he heard Dib. That horrible voice that he could recognize anywhere as his greatest enemy. But it was too far away that it was unintelligible to the communicator’s microphone. 

Gir looked at the source of the voice and screamed eagerly. “OKIE-DOKIE!!!” He turned back to the transmission and spoke in English this time. “I gotta go master! Dib needs me to break down the wall protecting the big data cube in the sample room. SEE YA!” And with that, he hung up promptly. 

Zim panicked and screamed into the communicator. “NO!! NO GIR WE DON’T HELP THE ENEMY!!! GIR! GI-- RAGH!” He tried to desperately redial the robot but got nothing. Nesumi stood there trying to process what she just saw. Was he speaking in English right now? He just confirmed having a translator, and it worked off the language that was being spoken to him as far as she could tell. What happened?

“Um… Zim…” She quietly tried to get his attention, hoping he wouldn’t snap at her for interrupting him in the middle of his rage. He didn’t notice her. Zim was too busy mumbling and ranting to himself in that foreign language, trying to reconnect to his servant. “Zim.” She tried repeating herself, bending down and picking up the outfit he discarded. His ramblings suddenly became coherent.

“--turning off the communicator like that. I’ll have to make it so he can’t do that anymore. Maybe just install one directly into his head where he can’t reach…” He reached into his pak and added ‘install Gir communicator’ to his to-do list. Nesumi took a deep breath. 

“Hey! Zim!!” Zim snapped his head to look at her. 

“WHAT?!” He yelled, practically vibrating with rage. Nes straightened up at the tone. She needed to pick her words wisely. ‘Are you okay?’ No. He isn’t and that’s obvious. ‘What happened?’ Something bad and he probably wouldn’t want to tell her about it in the middle of this fit he was having. So… Best option is to offer whatever she can. 

“What can I do to help?” She asked, trying to remain calm at his outburst. He’d been angry before, sure. But not like this. This was anxious. He was worried about something big. 

Zim softened his expression some and looked away scratching his head. She just wanted to help. “Nothing.” He replied bluntly. She continued to look at him worriedly and he grit his teeth. “Look. There’s nothing that you can do for me. You’re letting me stay in your _house_ and that’s about as useful as you can get.” Opening the back of the communicator he tried a manual reboot and recalling, still getting no connection. Then, he was back to grumbling to himself. 

“... About as useful as I can get.” Nesumi repeated softly. She looked down and smiled to herself emptily. Why did she hear that so often from people around her? Her peers, neighbors and mother all said the same thing at one point or another. They wanted her to stand off to the side and do the minimal out of fear she would mess up everything. Sports, community events, important errands. Was it so bad that even an alien could pick up on it after only knowing her for such a short while? She felt exhaustion creeping up on her. Glancing over at the house she grew slightly irritated. Why did they leave all those lights on? Now she had to go and turn them all off by herself. “Hey… I’m gonna go to sleep now.” She said taking a step back inside the shrine. He ignored her, still ranting under his breath while pacing back and forth at the frustrating circumstances. Nesumi closed her eyes, her hollow smile growing. Whatever. It’s not like she hasn’t already resigned herself to a life of getting left behind. Being the center of attention never interested her anyways. “Goodnight.” 

After a few hours of running through data on his tablets and hoping to remotely turn on Gir’s communicator all the way on the other side of the planet Zim gave up. He would at least need his ships computer to perform that task. Looking around he noticed that it had gotten a lot darker. The house lights were all mostly turned off except for one in the living room (which he assumed was the fireplace). The fires were dying down now too. He wanted to complain to someone. Nesumi listened to him talk about stuff no matter how bland it was. Screw it. He closed the shrine doors and walked back inside the house, practically stomping up the stairs and knocking on the girls’ almost non-existent door. Her lamp was on, but she wasn’t answering. He frowned and opened her door, finding her in a nightgown and asleep above the covers of her bed. She had closed the windows at some point. Damn. He really wanted to vent. He began turning to go and watch TV but paused at the slow, white blinking light of the laptop power button which sat next to her on the bed. It was slightly open. What was she using it so late for? 

Zim moved back towards her bed and took the device, sitting on the floor leaning up against the mattress. When the screen came on, he found an email open with half of a message written but couldn’t read anything on it. Using the English keyboard he found earlier he looked up a translator that could speak everything out loud for him. Thus, he lowered the volume so the noise wouldn’t wake her up in that violent manner she thrashed back into consciousness with. Out loud, the artificial voice read the message to him. “I am aware of my daughter's absence from her classes these past few weeks and am planning to ground her. On her behalf I apologize for her behavior and will make her apologize in person when she finally returns to school. As her mother I hope you do not hold this…” And the message cut off. 

His eyes widened. Was she impersonating her mother to the school? You can DO that?! Quickly, he translated more messages sent between this email and the school. Somehow, Nesumi had convinced the school that her mother’s cellphone shouldn’t be called and gave them the house phone instead. As well as this email address. There are emails upon emails of presumably false information excusing Nesumi’s absences from school and instances where she’s apparently faked signatures without getting caught (assuming that the faxes of absence acknowledgement forms and .pdfs she’s sending weren’t ever shown to her mother in the first place.) He may have spent an hour or two going through the messages. Was she really this good at lying? There’s a whole system here allowing her to get away with virtually anything. Surely this took some in-person convincing on her part. Lying right to the adults and not getting caught? Nesumi? With how nervous and clumsy she acted? It wasn’t adding up. Zim thought back to that phone call she had with her mom before the incident. That lie she told so easily about dropping her phone in the snow and completely avoiding the truth of having found an alien. How she lied to _him _about why she was crying. It actually came to her quite naturally, now that he thought about it. He was impressed. Her skills in lying and manipulating adults could come in handy in the future. But, like any human she would be highly opposed to assisting in the annihilation of her race. 

Wait a minute. If she could lie this well… what else was she lying about? What did she lie to _him_ about? “Sneaky, Nes. Just what could you be hiding from _Zim_…” He turned around to glare at her sleeping form. She was still laying down, but her eyes were wide open staring right at him. His stomach dropped. Before he could open his mouth to make an excuse for looking through her messages, the back of his head was kicked and he flew across the room, landing facedown. Nesumi sat up and pulled the covers over herself reflexively. “Who’s--! What are you-- ...Zim?” She squinted and rubbed her eyes as she relaxed. “Zim what are you doing in my room” She said with a yawn as if she didn’t just punt him full force.

Zim picked himself up onto his hands and sat on his knees, feeling the room spin as he got his bearings again. He whipped his head around to look at her in disbelief. Could she really go back to an innocent act after THAT? Whatever THAT was? “Nesumi…” He growled while standing up wobbly. Nes felt herself snap out of her half-asleep state at the sound of aggression in his voice. She picked up her pillow and held it close out of instinctual need for protection. 

“Um… I didn’t know it was you! I was half-asleep and I thought someone broke into my room… Well, technically you _did _break into my room--” He was stepping closer with an awfully menacing stature about him. “B-but I wouldn’t have kicked if I knew it was you! I’d never kick you on purpose… again. Okay, so I would probably kick you if you were trying to do something to me… W-wait.” He was right at the side of her bed glaring, she scooched herself into the corner up against the walls. “You- you _weren’t _trying to do something to me, right?” She had a nervous smile on her face. Did he get so angry with her at the shrine that he wanted to inject her with some weird serum? Or mess with her brain? 

“No.” He spoke flatly. “No I wasn’t. But I really gotta ask you… will yoU PLEASE _STOP_ **KICKING** **ME!?!**” He screamed as loudly as he could. Nesumi flinched and hid behind her pillow, only slowly peeking back at him again when she determined that he didn’t attack her. Anger filled her and she threw the pillow down. 

“I DIDN’T MEAN TO! IT WAS REFLEXIVE!” She shouted back at him.

He scowled. “REFLEX FOR WHAT!?!?” 

“DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS FOR A GIRL WHEN SHE’S ALONE AND SOMEONE’S BROKEN INTO HER HOME?!?” She screamed back, her face getting red from anger. 

“Yeah! It means you get ROBBED!” He responded matter-of-factly.

Nesumi relaxed a little. He didn’t know. She didn’t want to be too hard on him for not understanding. She sighed and played with a few strands of her hair while looking down. “Girls have more to worry about in those situations…” She said in an almost whisper. Zim cocked and eye. 

“What do you mean?” He said still kinda curt in his tone, but unconsciously mimicking her and relaxing his posture. 

She furrowed her brow. This isn’t something she wanted to try and explain because she hardly understood it herself. What she did know, however, was that it was terrifying. “Bad people can do unexpected and horrible things… Girls like me can’t protect ourselves effectively against someone twice our size and strength. So they…” Her voice caught in her throat. She couldn’t even begin to say it. Or look up at him while doing so. Just thinking about it made her feel sick.

Zim looked on feeling a twinge of guilt. In school he took notice of a few stranger danger posters, but when he asked a teacher about them, they simply explained that sometimes adults will hurt kids around their age; and if he wanted to know more, he needed to ask his parents about it. Ultimately, it didn’t interest him enough to investigate any further as he figured that protecting himself against a human wouldn’t be a problem. Now though, seeing that there may in fact be more to this than he originally assumed, it made him want to know. But Nesumi didn’t seem to want to explain it either, and he wasn’t gonna pressure her any more than this. “It’s fine, Nes. You needn’t explain anything.” He put his hand up to her and she looked up slightly surprised. “Besides, if I really want to know I can just--” He turned around to look at the laptop to find it utterly smashed on the floor. Ah. It broke his fall earlier, it seemed. 

Nesumi could feel her soul leaving her body just at the sight. The both of them went and stood over the broken laptop in silence, looking down with dry, blank faces. After a minute Nesumi was the first to speak up. “I think… I’m going to pretend someone broke in and stole it.”

Zim looked at her. “What??” 

“For when my mom gets home and can’t find her laptop because I’ll have buried it in the woods.” She was staring down at the laptop with a void smile that really highlighted how dead inside she was in this moment. Zim knit his brows. 

“So, you’re going to lie to your mom?” At least this lie benefit him to some extent.

“Yeah. I’ll say a maniac with a torch tried to rob us by breaking through the office window. The torch will help to explain the scorch mark on the wall by the stairs and maybe the clean-cut hole in my door if I add some burn marks to the edges. What do you think?” 

It almost sounded plausible. Before he could respond though, she put her hands together in front of her mouth while staring pensively at the floor. “But then Mom would want to know why I didn’t call the police to stop him.” She sat back on her bed really thinking about this. “I didn’t call the police because the maniac broke the phone.” Zim tried once more to speak up but Nesumi cut him off again lost deep in thought. He huffed and decided to let her wear herself out. “Then why didn’t I run to the police? Well I didn’t run to the police because he had a gun and I can’t outrun a gun. Though that would cause a full-scale investigation to take place in the house. Would they ask why I didn’t go to the police after he left? No, they won’t ask that because I’ll have gone by the time Zim leaves. I’d have to hide the evidence of the ritual too. Why didn’t the assailant take anything else besides the laptop? Wait no, I’ll bury other valuables, so it looks like a proper robbery!” Zim almost couldn’t believe that she was coming up with all this on the spot. She stood up smiling confidently. Coming up with scenarios like these was a fun game for her to play while growing up without any friends. Sometimes her grandma would even join in.

She used a deeper voice pretending to be a police officer. “Miss can you tell us what the man looked like?” She switched to her own (slightly smugger) voice. “Well mister officer detective man, he wore a ski mask, long sleeves… and-” Nes turned on her heel and pointed to Zims hand. “-gloves! Leaving no fingerprints behind! It was so scary I thought I was gonna die!” Zim just stood stunned watching this whole thing unfurl. Nesumi was gone. He should’ve brought her back to reality when he had the chance.

She faced the right. “So young lady, when did you clear the snow from the walkways?” 

Then she turned around and faced the left. “I did it right after the blizzard passed because I always do my chores right away! This allowed me to sneak inside the shrine and hide!” 

Turned right. “What made you light the lanterns in front of the shrine?” 

Turned left. “It was so cold that night and the shrine has no heater, I simply had to do it so I wouldn’t freeze to death! It was awful!” Zim quirked an eye and put a finger up. 

“Wouldn’t the robber notice the smoke coming from the lanterns? Also, those staffs we used had dust on them before the ritual. Would they ask why only those were moved?” He asked in an attempt to try and pull her out of this one-woman roleplay. 

“Ah!” She pointed at him dramatically and he unthinkingly cracked a small smile at how much she was acting like him when he’s on a roll planning out his schemes. “I thought that they could be used as improvisational weapons and practiced swinging them in the event the maniac saw the smoke and came into the shrine: hoping maybe I could catch him by surprise as he walked through the doors! However, the wind was strong that night and blew the smoke away before it could get too high, so he never even noticed.” She acted out her idea with a few motions like she was swinging a bat or fanning smoke away. Zim cocked his head.

“But aren’t those staffs sacred items?” 

“Desperate times call for desperate measures! My life was on the line!” Nes nodded proudly. 

Zim squinted. “So why would you use both staffs for that?” Nesumi put her hands on her hips. 

“I wanted to see if one was heavier than the other and tried both!” Damn she’s really sticking with this. How far ahead was she planning?

“And how did you determine when the man left?” He asked crossing his arms, unintentionally feeding into her little imaginary scenario. 

“After a while the noises stopped and I felt brave enough to go back inside the house!” Her response came instantly. Then she thought of how to connect some other parts of this pretend mess she concocted. “As for the big hole in my door-- Before running out of the house I locked my door from the outside so he would think someone was hiding in there and hid in a nearby hallway closet. While he was distracted, I could sneak away unseen!” She put her finger up feeling quite proud of herself for how this was all coming together. “He never once saw me.” 

Zim spoke up again, now feeling partially invested. “So how do you explain the scorch mark on the wall?” 

Nesumi puffed her chest out and spread her arms wide. “I saw a huuugeeeee cockroach earlier, but I lost sight of it. He might have a fear of bugs and saw it too.” 

Zim couldn’t help but grin. This was all to cover his ass and hers. So might as well play along to really help solidify the story. “Scared of bugs and uses arson weapons. Did you catch anything else note-worthy about the robber, miss?” Nesumi grinned at him enthusiastically. 

“Yes! I noticed while I was sneaking away that he was right-handed as he pulled out his smartphone and typed something with only his right hand!” 

“But that information is useless! Everyone is right-handed and scared of bugs!” 

“I don’t know what to tell you Mr. officer.” She said with pretend exasperation. “It’s not like I could sit down and have a cup of tea with the guy while asking for his life story.” 

Zim smirked and pointed at her. “But you did exactly that with an alien.” 

She gasped dramatically and feigned offence. “I would _never _invite a stranger into the house while my mother’s away. No matter how interesting and mysterious they may be! How DARE you!” The girl couldn’t keep a straight face and that in turn was making Zim snicker a bit. They both were pulled from their little game by the soft morning light peeking out over the horizon and shining into her room. Nesumi looked at Zim, then at her alarm clock which read 6:13 and decided to pause her dramatic act. “Want some pancakes?” 

“Yeah, sure.” He dropped the smile and cleared his throat, regaining his humorless attitude. They walked down the stairs together, Nesumi adding a comment.

“Actually, I really did see a big cockroach in the house. I don’t know where it is, and I’m terrified it’ll come into my room now that there’s a big hole in my door.” She poked his arm accusingly. “If it kills me, I blame you.” Zim opened his mouth thinking of how to retort this idiocy. 

Thus, began a heated debate about the lethality of cockroaches that stretched on until they were eating breakfast and drowning out the TV with their bickering. The living room was much brighter than it had been the past few days, as the windows were now completely free of any snow blocking their view to the outside. 

“-But they can hiss!! You know what else hisses? Snakes! Snakes are poisonous.” 

Zim scoffed. “That has nothing to do with anything! That’s like me bringing up that you have teeth, but so do cows so you must produce milk too, huh?” Zim flailed his hands every which-way to express his embittered point. 

Nesumi squinted at him quizzically. “Um… Actually…” The news suddenly grabbed their attention. 

“Today we’ll have a high of 28 degrees (78 Fahrenheit) and a low of 11 (53 F). So, all of that snow blocking up the sidewalks is going to melt exponentially! Schools will be opening their doors again starting tomorrow morning. Don’t forget to bring your rain boots for those puddles.” 

Zim and Nesumi looked at each other, Nesumi splitting a big grin. “We can go outside later!” However, Zim looked confused and slightly panicked by the news. She cocked her head. “What’s wrong?” 

“What did the weather announcer mean by school starting again tomorrow? The break is supposed to extend until December 2nd!” Zim couldn’t afford to miss a day of class with how strict the school was about absences. He already had enough of those on his record from his plans getting sidetracked for what could sometimes be days on end. This whole experience with Nesumi happened to be just one of many, but he thought he would be okay as long as he got back before the break was over. Nesumi was perplexed at what he was even talking about.

“Break? What do you mean?” She asked, momentarily realizing that him being this worried must mean he’s attending a school somewhere on Earth. But why was he attending school? Why was he on the planet to begin with?

Zim slammed his hand down on the table and stood up. “DON’T PLAY YOUR LYING TRICKS WITH ME! YOU KNOW WHAT _BREAK_! THE_ THANKSGIVING_ BREAK!” Nes slowly blinked, comprehension hitting her so hard she almost couldn’t believe how easily this giant piece to the Zim puzzle fell into place. She donned a lazy smile and looked away while taking a bite of her pancakes. He glowered. “What’s with that look?” 

Nesumi closed her eyes. She really didn’t know how to tell him gently, but he probably wasn’t going to rest until she answered. “… Thanksgiving... is only an American holiday.” Zim practically turned to stone at her answer. Oh, this was actually kinda sad. “It’s only celebrated by Americans and Canadians I think.” She couldn’t even look at him. He stood there utterly frozen for a solid minute. Somehow, he broke from his frozen state to slowly look up at the ceiling and defeatedly slink back down in his seat. He snatched up his fork and bitterly ate in silence. Nesumi smiled sympathetically. “You um-”

“NOT A WORD! NOT ONE WORD.” He pointed his fork at her in place of his finger as his free hand was clenched into a tight ball under the table and shaking with all the aggravated disappointment he had in himself. Nesumi puckered her lips and looked around the room, eventually returning to her plate to eat in awkward silence as Zim seethed to himself. 

She kept briefly glancing up at him, feeling like she needed to break the stale atmosphere. “... America is actually a really nice place to visit!” 

“QUIET-- AND no the HELL it _ISN’T_! The people are disgusting, filthy creatures that walk around in their combined stink, eating garbage and grease all day while drooling mindlessly. It’s horrible. This place here is the first human household I’ve come across that can even come _close _to the cleanliness of my base. And that’s _not_ saying something about your house. That’s saying something about those horrible people. HORRIBLE.” Nesumi felt somewhat relieved. He’s ranting again, which is a good sign. That means it wasn’t too big of an issue to him. “And you know what? They’re so **nosey. **I can’t walk anywhere without them staring at me like a bunch of mindless animals with nothing better to do. Oh, and the NEIGHBORS. Those people just walk right into your yard and- AUGH! With their disgusting _faces _and knock right on the door. RIGHT ON _MY_ DOOR. Then I have to go disinfect it afterwards, but I have to wait until they aren’t _looking_ or else they get all offended and call the neighborhood housing bureau who then come to my door in a stinking herd and are all like “BLUH yOu’Re HOUSE DoeSN’t MeET OuR CoDES aNd StANdArDS DUUHHHH--”” 

Oh, Nesumi wasn’t going to stop him now. This was good. This was all a good hard look into his real day-to-day life that she so desperately wanted to hear. Mentally, she noted all the little bits of information he was just giving away. He walks among and interacts with the humans (disguised?), he has a house with neighbors, he’s a huge germaphobe. She couldn’t help but smile like a giddy idiot at all this sweet info her patience finally rewarded her with. Her weird smile prompted Zim to pause his rant and glare at her suspiciously. “...What’s with that look?” 

Nes shook her head. “Nothing. I just like listening to you talk.” She told him full of sincerity. Zim blanked. What the hell? 

He grew angry. “DON’T LIE TO ME. WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING!?” There was something else. There had to be. Nobody just _‘likes’_ to listen to someone rant. Especially not when it’s him.

“I’m not planning anything. You’re just a really interesting person, is all!” Her reply came so easily and from the heart it caught him off guard. He sat there staring at her, lost in an aporetic daze. After a few seconds too many Nes became uncomfortable at his unrelenting gaze. “I’m um… I’m going to do the dishes now.” She said pointing to the kitchen. He didn’t reply. It looked like he was experiencing a mental error: 404. With slight turn of her head, Nesumi crumpled up a napkin using one hand, glancing at back at Zim a couple times. She held it up, signaling that it was about to be thrown his way. Zim still didn’t budge. The girl stuck her tongue out a bit while aiming and threw the napkin ball. It hit him square on the forehead, bringing him back to reality. 

“What the- WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!” He yelled slamming a hand down on the table. 

“Yay! It brought you back to life!” Nes clapped whilst feigning ignorance of his temper. She stood up and gathered the dishes, heading for the kitchen. 

“What does that even mea- ANSWER ME.” 

“I’m gonna wash these and then we can go find your ship, okay? Be ready!” She totally disregarded him to slip into the kitchen. 

Zim just sat there dumbfounded. “I… I… _What?_” He had to remind himself that the girl was a strange one in order to excuse her impudence. After all, he was much wiser and more mature than some stinky idiot earth child. 

The two both got themselves ready for the hike outside. Zim put on his boots to wait by the front door for Nes to get herself ‘dressed’ again. The boots somehow felt a little more constricting than he previously remembered. Perhaps it was because he had been barefoot this whole time? Nesumi came running back downstairs. Even without looking Zim could hear her slip and bang into the wall. He smirked to himself. How many times could she do that before learning from her mistakes? She rounded the corner to the entryway rubbing her head. She’d put on one of her school uniforms since all her other clothes need to be washed. Slipping on her shoes she pulled her big green jacket from the coat closet. 

“Aren’t you going to be cold dressed in that?” Zim asked, knowing full well that humans didn’t like the cold and would often dress accordingly. Nesumi looked at him blankly while holding up the coat. 

“S’what the jackets for.” She said as if he were the dumb one. 

He narrowed his eyes and pointed at her skirt which only hung down to her knees. “And what about that part?” 

Nesumi narrowed her eyes right back at him. Since her mother often criticized her winter dressing habits, she saw this as a personal attack. “...Shut up.” 

Zim offendedly opened his mouth to tell her off but found himself catching an umbrella being tossed his way. “W-” 

Nesumi opened the door to reveal the now-accessible world to them. The huge wall of snow that once stood so prominently in their way was just a small mound of slush now, hardly reaching to their ankles. Similar snow mounds were littering the grass, but a damp walkway of pavement perfectly free of slush sloped down the front of the yard and into the woods, winding towards the village below. The sky was completely clear and shone a deep blue, contrasting the partially dead trees of the woods. A few orange and red leaves still clung to their branches in clusters. Nesumi dashed outside and looked up the mountain, trying to re-envision which way she headed when chasing the crash. Zim looked down at the umbrella in his hands and back up at the totally clear sky. 

“What is the umbrella for?” 

Without a word Nes trotted over, grabbed the umbrella from his hands while still remaining outside, proceeded to open and hold it over her head before kicking the side of the house. As a result, a huge amount of snow slid down from the overhang and fell on top of the umbrella, and around her. Zim winced at the amount, imagining how much that would have hurt if it had hit him unprotected. She smiled, shook off the umbrella and handed it back to him as he walked outside, careful to step over the large pile of snow and slush. Nesumi pat him on the shoulder. “It’s in case the trees drip on you. Let’s go!” He nodded. 

Quickly shutting the front door, the pair set off into the woods. Zim soon became aware of how much of a maze these trees would have been if there wasn’t a slope to lead him back down towards civilization. Nesumi seemed quite confident in her ability to find her way through the forest. She acted as though there was a set path she knew to take in order to climb further up towards the top. Eventually, they came across a stream just a few meters in width that stood in their way. 

“Did you cross a stream when you came to find my ship?” He asked, noting her surprised reaction at the water. Nes looked up, vaguely remembering the way the treetops were parted in one area which allowed her to easily see the glow of his ship that night. 

“I think so.” She responded, taking a wide step onto a flat rock protruding from the shallow water. 

“That doesn’t sound like a yes.” He said, refusing to move until he was certain that crossing the deathly water was worth the effort. Nes hopped to another rock. Luckily, the stream was speckled with these things. 

“Well the snow was covering everything by the time I left the house. So, the water probably turned to ice and got buried during the blizzard. We’re not going the wrong way though. In fact, your ship should be right past here.” She pointed to what looked like a small drop into a trench. 

Zim sighed, hoping she actually knew where she was taking him. By the time Nes reached the other side and turned around to look at him, she found him backing up while closing the umbrella. Then, completely lifting him up off of the ground were his pak legs. She watched in amazement as they carried him forwards quickly, clearing the stream with a swift jump before retracting in under a second as he landed cleanly on his feet. Zim straightened out his uniform, suddenly feeling his hand snatched up by the girl. He looked over, finding her totally over-excited again. He mentally cursed himself for doing that in front of her. She shook his hand as she hopped up and down. “That was SO COOL!!! CAN YOU DO IT AGAIN!?!?” Zim coolly snatched his hand back. Somehow, he was getting used to her childish outbursts. They weren’t as annoying as he originally found them to be. It was actually kind of endearing how easily she could go from 0 to 100 over something as simple as him jumping over a stream. Rather, they were much more preferable to Girs’ insane outbursts. 

“I’ll do it again when we go back.” He pointed out, continuing forward. Nesumi booed and followed him. Easily sliding down into the shallow trench, Zim spotted his mangled ship sitting in the deepest area. He breathed a huge sigh of relief at the sight, running towards it as Nes carefully slid down after him. Climbing into the cockpit he could finally assess the damage. Last time he sat here there was too much smoke for him to see properly. Now, he felt stressed at how badly the dashboard was smashed. The holographic error screen fizzed and wavered as text rolled down, listing off all the major malfunctions. His engines, hyperdrive, computer, sensors all totally down. This was going to take some extra equipment that he didn’t have. 

Nesumi picked up her wet, broken smartphone from the dirt, looking through the hole at Zim as he messed around with whatever dashboard buttons worked. She remembered the fear she felt when first seeing his pak legs. How tall and menacing they made him look. Those nightmarish memories of him feel so foreign compared to what she knows now. The past few days with Zim have been some of the best memories she’s ever had. He was her first friend, and even though him going back home was the initial goal of their mutual friendship, she couldn’t help but feel heartache at how her first and only friend was just a day or two away from leaving for good. It would be selfish to dissuade him from trying to so soon. He was so patient and nice to her while he waited for the snow to melt. Nes dropped the phone back to the ground. If she only had a few days left to spend with this amazingly cool alien, then by god she was going to do everything she could to help him. Even if her selfish desires for companionship were still there, she would bury them deep and ignore them. This wasn’t about her, after all. Everything from this point forward is going to be for helping Zim get home, to fully pay him back for his kindness. No matter what, she couldn’t sidetrack him from his mission. 

Zim huffed frustratedly at how little he was able to do. He hopped out of the pod and walked around to the other side, kicking the ship and opening the storage unit that he had in the back. Inside were some basic supplies, but nothing totally useful in completely fixing the ship. Luckily, he had some stock that could be used to temporarily mend the engines. He had also memorized how to make the tools he needed to repair his technology with some everyday human items. Even basic human tools would help him right now. “Hey Nes. Can you fetch me your toolbox from the house really quick?” He asked while looking through a box of scraps and alien batteries. Nesumi immediately felt disappointment at how quickly her plans to seamlessly help him fell to pieces. 

“We um… We don’t have a toolkit… here. At the shrine.” She said, kicking at the ground. 

Zim stopped his rummaging to peer out of the ship at her. “Why would you _not_ have a toolkit?” He interrogated, feeling like the whole planet was against his favor this week. 

Nesumi put her hands into her jacket pockets and continued to look down. “Because my dad took it with him when he left.” 

Zim didn’t recall her ever talking about her dad. But when he threatened to kill her parents all she stated was that they were out of town. “And when is he supposed to come back?” The question seemed to summon a bitter look from the girl. 

“Maybe when he decides to divorce the woman he cheated on my mom with.” She spat with a sort of venom that instantly reminded him of how she acted during their fight. This was a sensitive subject to her, he gathered. So, he quickly steered the topic away from her family affairs to keep her emotionally grounded. Nesumi freaking out again on him was completely off the table. It didn’t matter if he felt like prying into the secrets of her life. It was important to keep her on task.

“Do you know where I can find another one?” He asked, completely disregarding her attitude. Nesumi stared at the ground for a bit longer. He thought maybe it was too late and she was about to snap, but she eventually spoke up. 

“The school.” She said looking up with a small smile. He felt a wash of relief. So, she wasn’t teetering on the edge of collapse like he thought. Zim took a deep breath. 

“When can we go there?” He asked, walking out of the storage compartment. Nes looked up at the sky.

“Let’s head out before sunset. That way we can get there by dark and the security cameras won’t see us breaking in.” She suggested. 

Zim looked back into the storage compartment. He had his back-up disguise with him, so it wouldn’t be too big of a deal to go walking to the school. Though, he did have a question. “How do you know the security cameras won’t see us?” 

Nes smiled and nonchalantly waved her hand. “Oh, you know… I’ve broken in there a few times myself.” 

Zim gaped at her. What the hell is with this girl? When he first met her, she totally seemed like the goodie-two shoes type. And just today he’s found out that she’s a masterful liar and breaks into her school? “Why are you breaking into the school, Nes?” He felt compelled to ask, as her motives continued to elude him. 

“Well sometimes I need to take stuff out of my school file, or the boys steal my things and put it into their lockers to tease me and I have to go get them back. The teachers keep the keys to everything in the staff room and it’s so easy to unlock the window from the outside and grab them. I’m really surprised nobody else has figured this all out by now.” She said with a shrug. Zim continued to gawk at her. His incredulous expression turned into a smile, which came accompanied with laughter. The growing laughter was definitely a little crooked but Nesumi knew well why he was excited. This new development of how diluted her morals actually were came as a pleasant surprise. No need to convince her that it’s not a big deal to break and enter. No having to hold her hand as they sneak through the school. And no need to worry about her ruining a lie in case they happened to get caught. Even if having to go to the school was a huge inconvenience, the circumstances couldn’t be smoother.

“So, it’s tonight then?” He said, wiping a tear from his eye as his laughter died down. 

Nesumi confidently held up her fist with a nod. “Tonight!”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you like it? Did it make you smile? Cringe? Did it invoke no emotion whatsoever? Tell me about that stuff! I love to hear your words, kind or constructive! 
> 
> I'm not playing this fic by ear, y'know. I actually have about 6 more chapters planned out by now. I'm constantly referencing the overdrafts and connecting things... referencing connections... Overdrafting constantly. 
> 
> I like to write them bickering. It's such a close friend thing to do don't you think? Nesumi's backstory is starting to come into light here, too. We're just gonna ignore that though. Oh! Did you see? I brought up the pictures she drew again! I remembered this time. 
> 
> Originally this chapter was going to have a lot more going on, but I had to split it up and put the other half into chapter 5 to make room for all the antics and conversations. 
> 
> Anyways, you can think of this chapter as the calm before the storm. Because... It's about to get real dark and stormy in these parts. And I don't mean the weather. I'll need to be updating the archive warnings soon! Just a heads up!


End file.
